This paper presents a rationale for including aesthetic education in the traditional elementary and secondary curriculum. By teaching students to perceive images as artists do and to make images as artists do, aesthetic education fosters imaginative perception and sensitivity to a broad range of feelings. Four factors contribute to the need for aesthetic education: (1) A citizenry uneducated in the forms of feelings is vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation. (2) Because the modern world is vastly interdependent, it is vital to understand other cultures; one of the most direct routes to learning is through the arts, which display the deepest concerns of a culture and the way the world is perceived by a culture. (3) It is the right of every child to examine the fine arts; aesthetic education should not be elitist. (4) Most important, aesthetic education creates an area in which imagination can transcend social and technological barriers to thought, action, and feeling. At the elementary level, students should acquire a familiarity with a variety of performance and creative skills. At the secondary level, students can be introduced to aesthetic criticism or the skills of viewing works of art as the artist and critic perceive them. Teachers can integrate aesthetic education into the classroom through creative workshops, arts programs, or an exploration of themes or historical styles. (KC)