the future than they are and is consequently responsible for the growth and development of students;
Education requires mastery of content and subject matter.
Essential schools, as described by Evans (1996) and as understood in many school districts today, are often constructed along lines that do not run parallel to the theory of Essentialism as a normative framework for educational practice. In fact, as Evans (1996) has pointed out, many contemporary American public schools that are pursuing educational reform are more focused on such matters as student self-esteem, participatory decision-making, inclusiveness of all possible points of view, and alternative strategies for assessment and learning than on the "basics" that are subsumed within Essentialism.
What Essentialism offers, in the view of Callahan (1962), is a set of requirements that structure a school's efforts and the content of its programming รป creating a structure that, like those found in private sector business entities, focuses on efficiency
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