Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Essentialists in Politics

The Republican Party focuses on the role of free market policies, individual achievement, laissez-faire economics, fiscal conservation, personal responsibility, and upholding the key values that the United States was built on. Republicans are known also as, "Conservatives", which are also given to Essentialists in education.

Essentialists in Education

Essentialism is the idea or doctrine that feels education should focus on basic skills, self-disciplines, societal encouragement, and increasing levels of learning and comprehension in a scale appropriate to a student’s age and cognitive ability. Essentialism focuses also on the three R's, (reading, writing, and arithmetic), building life skills such as morals, values, and self taught disciplines, as well as preparing the youth for the inevitable future takeover of society. 

Progressives in Politics

The Progressive Party focuses on building a party and government controlled by citizens, not corporate elites—with policies that serve the broad public interest, not just private interests, and concerning themselves with the immediate or the now, while showing no interest in the effects of tomorrow or in the future. Their actions today, are to take over the Democratic Party platform and rebuild it from the ground up with Progressive stances and policies.

Progressives in Education

Progressivism in education (as is in general), is the attitude for immediate distribution of change or reform. Progressive teachers focus on the now and not what happens tomorrow: in theory that the rest of life will simply fall into place. Progressive teachers look at each student as a, "receptacle for knowledge" meaning that students are merely an empty hole that you feed information to.