“Essentialism”

Essentialism is the idea that traditional customs, ideas, and skills are essential to society. This definition also states that these traditional concepts should be taught to all students. The article, “Essentialism and Experience”,  goes more in depth on this topic. In this article, there are examples of essentialism in the classroom. For example, the privledged location, the unique mixture of experimential and analytical ways of learning, is the  most important location from which on can gain knowledge. In other words, this idea is conveying how experience is important in the learning process and can deepen classroom discussions. Thus, sharing personal experiences in the classrooms give each individual a distinctive voice. Overall, the combinaion of the analytical and the experiemential is a broadens and expands our way of knowing and learning.

Indeed, this text was difficult to read and fully understand, however, it discusses a very interesting topic. After analyzing it at a slower pace, I was able to grasp an understanding of the main ideas.