The Five Philosophies Of Education

There are five philosophies of education that focus on teachers and students; essentialism, perennialism, progressivism, social reconstructionism, and existentialism. Essentialism is what is used in today’s classrooms and was helped by William Bagley in the 1930s. Perennialism is close to essentialism with the same idea of sharpening student’s minds and focusing on Great Books. Progessivism, social reconstructionism, and existentialism focus more on the wants and need of the students. Many people have different opinions on which should be used in schools today. Essentialism is used by many education facilities in today’s world and in recent history. This philosophy focuses on core classes and wants all Americans to have the same education. Foreign language, science, math, history, and literature are the subjects that essentialism likes to focus on. Electives are not favored in this ideology because they are believed to take away from the necessary core curriculum. William Bagley is thought to be the founder of essentialism since the 1930s. In the year 1938, Bagley grouped with colleagues to create a different kind of school. Together, part of what they formed was an education system that …show more content…
Essentialism created by William Bagley is very popular in schools today. It is closely related to perennialism which focuses on the same idea of teaching students to think rigorously but learning through reading Great Books. Progressivism starts to shift into the student-centered philosophies in which these teachers believe that kids learn through real-world experience. They prefer field trips and group projects much like the social reconstructionist. Existentialism allows students to be almost completely in charge of what they are learning. Every teacher and every school has their own philosophy