This article reports the results of a study of 25 second-grade students' conceptions of art. The study used a combination of participant observation, questionnaires, and interviews. Concludes that second graders generally like art and conceive of it as an activity, a place, and as an object. (JDH)

Based on a full-color reproduction of Henry Fuseli's 1781 painting, "The Nightmare," the purpose of this lesson is to introduce a painting that presents a pioneering idea about the nature of dreams, and to help students understand how a masterpiece often points to new directions in thought and beliefs. (JDH)

Compares recent trends in art education with the rationale for art learning expressed in a 1931 article by Victor D'Amico, "Art and the Average American Boy." Concludes that much of what D'Amico wrote still holds true today, especially the belief that art instruction must move beyond the studio to permeate daily life. (JDH)

Provides a lesson plan for primary grade-level students based on William J. Glackens' oil painting, "The Cedar Walk." The goal of the lesson is to introduce students to landscape/seascape painting. (JDH)

Presents a lesson plan for introducing students in grades four through six to Thomas Moran's painting, "The Grand Canyon." The goal of the lesson is to illustrate the importance of the American West as a subject for artists in the nineteenth century. (JDH)

Notes that during times of stress and perceived imbalance there is a tendency to "get hold of things" and return to a state of stability and lower levels of ambiguity. Reviews the thinking behind the discipline-based art education movement and identifies alternative perspectives. (JDH)

Findings revealed no significant response differences due to mode of presentation. The study provides support for the proposition that mode of presentation has little systematic effect on untrained subjects' evaluations of paintings. (Author/RM)

An answer to the question, What is the paramount value of art, the value that justifies its inclusion in the school curriculum? is provided, using the writings of A. C. Bradley and Susanne K. Langer. Implications for teaching the arts are given. (RM)

Beardsley's explanation of how works of art have the capacity to give an aesthetic character to human experience provides a justification for art education in the schools. His major work, "Aesthetics," and subsequent writings that have a bearing on art education are discussed. (Author/RM)

Although aesthetic descriptions and critical judgments of works of art rely on the standard use of language (it is meaningless to invent some extended or special technical language), they nevertheless require informed perception and imaginative but precise application. Implications for art education are discussed. (RM)

Author's aim was to discuss the problems of evaluating the arts curriculum in the light of the struggle of a school system to establish curriculum evaluation as a vital link in curriculum development. (Author/RK)

Aesthetics education should be based on Plato's aesthetics, which recognizes the power of art to revolutionize world awareness, rather than on the aesthetics of Herbert Read and John Dewey. Art educators must reconcile the subversive nature of art and the conservative aims of education. (Author/MJL)

Presents four principles (aesthetic knowledge, aesthetic response, aesthetic creation, and aesthetic evaluation) by which the arts must be anchored to basic education. (Part of a theme issue on the crisis in music education.) (Author/SJL)

The arts are an equal and essential part of the curriculum if understood as rigorous disciplines of the mind and necessary vehicles of thought, no less than the sciences. (Author/IRT)