Starting with a brief historical overview of the institutionalization of aesthetic education, particularly in the Western countries, this paper will review some of the major ideologies and research findings related to the value of aesthetic education. It will attempt to highlight certain learning theories and approaches to arts education in school. Some main issues, debates and trends surrounding aesthetic education today and its relevance in the local and global contexts are also reviewed. Finally, the last section of this paper will explore some global and regional patterns concerning the prevalence of, and relative emphasis placed on, aesthetic education over the first nine years of schooling at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A bibliography is included, along with a list of selected links relevant to aesthetic education. (Contains 14 figures, 3 tables, and 13 footnotes.)