Focuses on observations of aesthetic behavior in children and also speculates on what effect the presence or absence of aesthetic feeling has on individual and social functioning. (Author/RK)

As a dramatic arts professor's experience shows, children's lack of arts education inhibits their ability to communicate ideas spontaneously, respond with feeling, and discern quality from commercial junk. By contrast, a role-playing/research activity with 15 youngsters helped students express themselves creatively and build community in a…

Focuses on how art viewers express their aesthetic experiences into linguistic structures. Analyzes the language of novice adult art viewers and, using discourse analysis, identifies four interpretive strategies evident in their speech: (1) contrast, (2) negation, (3) speculation, and (4) narration. Discusses each strategy in relation to current…

Discusses the importance of aesthetic education in middle schools. Imagines a school as an aesthetic environment. Describes how several content area teachers have enhanced the learning of traditional content through aesthetic projects and activities. Notes students' enthusiastic response. Outlines a five-step approach to incorporate aesthetics…

Various arguments are adduced to develop the notion that the mestizaje of Mexico have developed a cultural style, that the style manifests itself architecturally, and that it is not a mistake to label the style "postmodern." The work of Goldblatt is cited, and material descriptive of the Church of Santa Maria Tonantzinla are alluded to.…

The Cincinnati Art Museum's Jain shrine is an elaborate structure that allows Jains to contemplate a life of peace, discipline, and freedom from earthly desires. This shrine, an elaborately carved canopy (typically used by royalty) with two freestanding support pillars, was made during an important growth period that saw the building of numerous…

The decline in public support for the arts is evident in diminished audience approbation as much as in support by public and, increasingly, private sources. This article postulates that the same phenomenon is taking place with the decrease of arts education in our schools. The author argues that our schools are taking on an increasingly…

Highlighting many of the author's own experiences as an artist and an art instructor, this paper laments the problem of visual ignorance among contemporary children and proposes a course in basic visual literacy. Such a course would teach form and content as interactive and synergistic concepts rather than as separate attributes. Students could…

Aesthetics, or the philosophy of art, is perhaps the most troublesome discipline advocated in a discipline-based approach to art education. It is troublesome for many reasons, including its largely verbal nature and the lack of experience of most art teachers with its content and modes of inquiry. Nevertheless, aesthetics can serve as a basis for…

The Urban Arts program uses community resources to bring the arts and artists to the schools and also to send students out to the studio, concert hall, stage, and museum. (Author/IRT)

The arts can provide new modalities for general learning for the handicapped. (Author)

Article surveyed the historical roots of our current concern with aesthetic education from the 1870s until the present. (Author/RK)

The man aging editor of "Art Education" urges educators in all fields to work together in developing sensitive humane education which can lead youth to see their world aesthetically. (BR)

Created to support aesthetic education for grades K-6, this document provides a scope and sequence for instruction which art teachers can use. Areas covered include: drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, textile arts, puppetry, architecture, environmental design, film-making, and commercial art. Detailed outlines of concepts, performance…

This set of papers documents evaluation research methodologies that have emerged during the course of evaluating arts in the schools programs over a 6-year period. The papers follow in chronological order, from an early program involving practicing artists in inner city schools, to a report of a follow-up evaluation study 5 years after the…