Barclays believes that if the American people do not want to give up democracy in despair and succumb to dictatorship, then sincere educators must cooperate with other citizens to defend American democracy. Baglai pointed out two main reasons why American education was morbid at that time. First, the leading educational theories such as progressivism are "simply powerless"; Secondly, the relaxation of school standards in many school systems has led to a general policy of "promoting sociality". He severely condemned progressivism for overemphasizing children's freedom, interests and activities and giving up training, hard work and work. Progressive education has completely abandoned the strict academic performance standards in many school systems as a condition for students' promotion.
(A) the ideological basis
The philosophical basis of the essentialist educational trend of thought is quite complicated, and each essentialist believes in different philosophical views, so their educational views are both similar and different. However, the conservative views of essentialists are basically the same in the view of human nature and society.
1, conservative political view and human nature view: the education of essentialism is intrinsically related to the conservative political opinions and forces of the western bourgeoisie. The conservative view of human nature holds that human nature is evil. If people act according to their own desires and feelings uncontrollably, they always tend to run amok, cause trouble and be undisciplined.
2. Social outlook: Conservatism holds that people should not only admit that they have benefited from the past and the current social system that embodies the best ideas of the past, but also support social arrangements. It is because of society that people can keep discipline. Whether through revolutionary means or non-violent means, it is wrong to eliminate the social institutions and the lifestyle that society has formed, and it is a betrayal of the predecessors and the new generation. It is with the norms in traditional culture that human life is valuable. Conservatism emphasizes individual obedience to society, but it also recognizes individual dignity and freedom. When emphasizing individual freedom, we can't ignore the individual's responsibility to society. Power and responsibility are inseparable. However, liberals overemphasize individual power and neglect responsibility, which causes confusion among young people. Conservatism believes that the failure of education at that time was that it did not instill a sense of responsibility in young people, which led to student riots and juvenile delinquency. To overcome this phenomenon, we must let young people learn from the past and past traditions, so as to control the feelings and fantasies of young students, and young people must be transformed and saved through society.
3. View of knowledge: Conservatism opposes the cognitive method of relying entirely on experience and the corresponding "learning by doing" in education, and thinks that these ideas of experimentalism will make many valuable traditional courses lose their foothold in schools. It should be pointed out that these claims of conservatism do not mean that they deny science and its value in wisdom training. Their purpose is to pay attention to mathematics, modern language, literature, history and other disciplines while recognizing the scientific value. Conservatism holds that truth is not mysterious and incomprehensible. According to the correspondence theory, the so-called truth is a statement consistent with the facts, which is open and public. Experimentalism denies universal truth and unchangeable principle. In education, it advocates teaching students the so-called scientific method of obtaining truth, rather than teaching students knowledge and truth. Therefore, the truth view of experimentalism is meaningless and not worth taking. Conservatism holds that education is the art of imparting truth and knowledge. It is important that the teacher must teach the truth. Whether children are interested in what they have learned is secondary. Of course, under the premise of teaching truth first, teachers should also arouse students' interest in truth, especially students' interest in mastering truth for the sake of truth. In the view of conservatism, the cultural heritage of the western bourgeoisie is all true facts and principles, so it is all truth. Schools should become institutions that teach "cultural heritage", which should be regenerated in the new generation through education.
(B) the basic concept of essentialism education
1, educational purpose:
Essentialists generally believe that the purpose of education is to "make progress" in society. From a conservative point of view, progress is achieved by destroying human nature. Essentialism holds that in order to promote social progress, we must protect cultural heritage through rational and moral training. In the view of essentialism, culture is the result of joint efforts and division of labor. Only by accepting culture can human beings avoid degradation and destruction, and only by inheriting cultural heritage can human beings carry it forward. Essentialism holds that education has two purposes. First, from a macro point of view, education is the key element or core of transmitting human cultural heritage. It is believed that only by mastering culture can a person accurately predict the consequences of various behaviors and thus achieve his desired goals. Secondly, from the microscopic point of view, education is a training to help individuals realize rationality and morality, because it is very important for the harmonious development of individual rationality and personality.
2. Courses:
(1) Essentialism education advocates that the curriculum content should be "cultural elements", and it puts forward the principles of curriculum setting: firstly, consider the interests of the country and the nation; Secondly, the course should have a long-term goal. Essentialism believes that a mistake of progressivism is to destroy some established models in education, overemphasize the importance of children's vital interests and interests, and pay too much attention to "this seems to be the most worthy problem to be solved at present", thus losing the long-term goal and not worth going on; Finally, the curriculum should include values. It goes without saying that essentialism certainly requires "some kind of collective value standard, that is, the social and cultural value standard of the traditional class in society and the value standard of the national political and ideological circles". In order to teach social traditions, people must also teach social traditional values.
(2) Emphasize the logical organization of subject center and teaching materials. Progressivism advocates "learning by doing" activity curriculum, which breaks the boundaries between disciplines and the logical organization of each discipline. Essentialism holds that school curriculum should provide students with differentiated and organized experience, that is, knowledge. If students are provided with an undifferentiated experience, they will have to distinguish and organize themselves, which will hinder the effectiveness of education. In the view of essentialists, the most effective and efficient way to provide students with differentiated and organized experiences is subject courses. Essentialism also requires that the teaching of all subjects should be organized into a system in a certain order. In addition, it also requires a certain degree of difficulty and challenges students' intellectual development.
3. Teaching:
Essentialism and progressivism are opposite on the status and role of teachers, and their root lies in the difference of philosophical basis. Experimentalism holds that knowledge is not static, because it is changeable, and people can only acquire real knowledge in the process of experience and activity; Truth is not something that human beings wait for people to discover, but something that we create ourselves. Essentialists believe that "the world runs according to predetermined laws", or that "truth exists outside people and truth is discovered". Moreover, the conservative nature of essentialism requires that "the order of things should be discovered, not imposed on things". Generally speaking, the difference between them in epistemology and truth view is that progressivism advocates "creating" truth, while essentialism holds that truth is "discovery".
From the essentialist point of view, since it exists objectively, teachers and students are observers of this reality. However, teachers are knowledgeable observers. The task of teachers is to make students understand that our task is not to "create" truth, but to "discover" truth. In addition, he will try to arouse students' desire to observe reality and "discover" truth. In their view, teachers should become experts and authorities in students' minds. The initiative in the process of education lies with teachers rather than students, and teachers should be at the center of the education process. Teachers organize children's learning activities, maintain students' discipline and strict value standards in class, and provide students with a good environment conducive to their study. Only under the guidance and control of teachers can children give full play to human potential.
Essentialism holds that teachers should have greater authority and use teachers' authority to strictly control students. In the view of essentialists, the purpose of learning is to let students master the knowledge and skills that will benefit them for life, not just to judge whether they have immediate value. Therefore, some knowledge, even if it has no immediate practical effect, must be required to be mastered by students and stored in their brains for later use. Therefore, in teaching, it is absolutely necessary to clearly define the content and scope of knowledge that students are required to master. In addition, the teaching method can not completely exclude memory. The memory advocated by essentialism is different from the parrot-like rote learning in traditional education, but emphasizes hundreds of millions of purposeful memories on the basis of a deep understanding of concepts.