Aesthetic Education
From WikEd
Descriptions, definitions, synonyms, organizer terms, types of
- The term aesthetics was a term first used by the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten in 1744 to mean “the science of the beautiful.‿ (Crawford, 1991, 18) Aesthetic education is often used synonymously with arts, music, drama, and dance education. However, aesthetic education is a more encompassing term, involving all aspects of education that fosters the creation of beauty and creativity in each individual student.
- As defined by Crawford (1991), aesthetics is "the attempt to understand our experiences of and the concepts we use to talk about objects that we find perceptually interesting and attractive.‿ (18)
- Abbs (1991) sees the "aesthetic field" as four components: Making, Presenting, Responding, and Evaluating. These four components tie in completely with the current National Standards for Art, Music and Theatre.
- Aesthetic education involves a subjective inclusion of personal experience, thought, and belief, to create, imagine, and evaluate things of beauty, be they natural or otherwise. Rosenblatt (in Connell, 2000) sees the aesthetic exeperience as the synthesis of what one already knows, feels, and desires with what the subject offers.
- Maxine Greene (2001) defines the term aesthetic as “an adjective used to describe or single out the mode of experience brought into being by encounters with works of art.” She further defines aesthetic education as “an intentional undertaking designed to nurture appreciative, reflective, cultural, participatory engagements with the arts by enabling learners to notice what is there to be noticed, and to lend works of art their lives in such a way that they can achieve them as variously meaningful. When this happens, new connections are made in experience: new patterns are formed, new vistas are opened. Persons see differently, resonate differently; as Rilke wrote in one of his poems, they are enabled to pay heed when a work of art tells them, ‘You must change your life.’” It is important to note that Maxine Greene differentiates between aesthetic education and art education.
Application in and effects on classrooms and similar settings
General Application
- Unfortunately, aesthetic education can sometimes be seen by education administrators as a "special," a frill that might make kids happier to be in school, but serves no real educational value. This is simply not the case. While aesthetic education courses, such as art, music, and theatre may be more subjective in their evaluations and flexible in their course of study, they offer a distinct perspective to the educational experience that other courses do not. In looking at the purpose of aesthetic education at the public school and collegiate level, Crawford (1991) states, “Except at the graduate level, aesthetics is not taught with a mind of training students to become philosophical aestheticians. Rather, it is part of a liberal arts education designed to broaden perspectives and to develop critical skills.‿ (19)
Influence on the Teaching of Literature
- Jeanne Connell (2000) looks at the influence of the teaching theories of Louise Rosenblatt and her inclusion of aesthetics in the teaching of literature. Rosenblatt is seen as one of the four key theorists influencing how literature is taught in secondary schools. In her work, Literature as Exploration, Rosenblatt places emphasis on the reader to derive meaning from the text. When applying Rosenblatt’s transactional reader response theory to the study of literature, it becomes “a mode of personal life experience that involves a potentially powerful combination of intellect and emotions not available in other areas of study.‿ (27) One brings personal experience into the reading of the piece, just as one brings life experiences into the listening of a piece of music, or the viewing of a work of visual art.
Influence on the Teaching of Music
- Bennett Reimer believes that musicality is inherent in each individual and that aesthetic experiences in music is not solely for the elite. On aesthetics, Reimer states that aesthetic educators must be acquainted with the deepest values of music as they are understood by the professional scholars whose job is to explain them. These educators must represent the art of music to children as authentically and as comprehensively as they can understand and teach. In his approach to music education, Reimer includes materials from a wide spectrum of musical literature and promotes exposure to musics of other cultures. This he believes will bring us to a deeper understanding of our own being as well as our own relationship to those from other cultures.
Influence on the Teaching of History
- “It is commonly argued that no proper understanding of the world in which we live and of the culture of which our society is a part and a manifestation is possible without the constituent members of it having at least some minimal grasp of the roots of that culture and society, an awareness of the springs and origins of the institutions and traditions in which their community is now embodied and which are its chief constitutive elements and components.‿ (Aspin, 1991, 215)
- The teaching of history is the teaching of culture. Most historical events can be traced in the finite to cultural mores and beliefs. Aesthetics are part of that culture. To understand the cultural context of a society is to be able to trace its development. Aesthetic education can be integrated easily into the history classroom. Music and visual art of the time period is a reflection of what is going on in the culture. Included with these is the study of theatre, and the taste of the theatre-going public of a time period. Also, activites can be done with role playing, as Venable (2001) speaks of in his article. Placing the students into the roles of historical figures, and artists of the time will increase their creativity, as well as immerse them in the culture of the time period.
Evidence of effectiveness
- As was stated in the previous section, aesthetic education programs are not tied solely to the arts-centered classes. Aesthetic education plays a role in all aspects of education. Any activity that fosters students to create an imagine is furthering the cause of aesthetic education. While music, art, theater, and dance classes offer the greatest opportunities for these occurences by their very nature, all aspects of the curriculum can integrate these ideas into their lessons.
Critics and their rationale
- Critics of aesthetics in public education tend to see the classes involving the arts as a "frill," one that should be included only if the school system has the time and the money. This involves the paradigm of the importance of the "Three R's," and that anything else is secondary.
- While the subjects of reading, writing, and mathematics are important for living in the modern age, they are only fragments of a whole person. While most people do not read as much for leisure as they do for a literature class, pleasure can still be found from the act. This holds true for all of the arts. Schools are a training ground for building the basic skills for lifelong learning. Aesthetics play a role in this formation, and should be included in the core curriculum.
Alternative explanations due to Diversity considerations
- Aesthetic education is full of alternative explanations, due to the subjectivity of the topic. Diversity is an integral part of aesthetic education. We are all sentient beings, capable of creating original thought. When dealing with the aesthetic, it is truly a personal reaction to a work. The concept of aesthetic education recognizes these differences and embraces them as a individual's contribution to society.
Signed ‿life experiences‿, testimonies and stories
I think there is a lot to be said for this kind of education. Students need to be able to attach information to a feeling, experience or object and aesthetics education certainly does that. It also ties in nicely with my research on Brain based learning if one cares to take a gander at it on WIKED.
I enjoyed your class presentation, especially when you mentioned ways that music education is justified in the schools. I am finding it difficult to adjust to the way my band program has been justified in the past. It's difficult to convince a school board that a marching band is the reason music should be in the curriculum because it gives students the experience of teamwork and competition. It's a touchy topic with me... -Missy Legutki
My experience teaching aesthetics education has been extremely rewarding. Teaching it helps students become more aware and accepting of all people and cultures and abilities. It has definitely broadened their horizons. -G. Vigneron
Being a part of the creation of beauty is a truly human endeavor. To feel intentionally and to help others to feel intentionally is truly human. The education of this beauty and the ability to recall this beauty is one of the most important things that we can do as teachers. This is why the fine arts and humanities are so very important. A. Dorough
While working in a school that uses the Project Approach, I have found that the influence of aesthetics on the curriculum has created a wonderful educational environment. The classroom is infused with the idea of and appreciation of The 100 Languages of Children. For more information on the 100 Languages of Children check out Reggio Emilia at <http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/exhibitions/reggio/> The Reggio Emilia Approach delights in the fact that children are capable of creating, appreciating and collaborating to create an aesthetic environment of the highest degree. T.Martin
Some of my most powerful educational memories are centered around art, and the connections that can be made between art and other subjects. As a math student I remember my teacher showing us how math was used by Da Vinci in his paintings, and how math was prevalent in some of nature’s most beautiful creations (flowers, oceans, rainbows, etc.) I think aesthetic education is a powerful way to connect everyday life to subjects that often seem obscure or abstract. These connections serve to make learning a meaningful and beautiful process – Jeremiah Johnson
Being a teacher in the field music, where aesthetics is a large part of creating our art form, challenges are presented in getting young high school students to "feel" or "be" the music. As the teacher, I have to "become" the music for them so that they have someone to relate to. I try and gets my students to see colors, think of things that might relate to a piece of music or an particular section of music, and get them to become emotional about it. A large part of getting them to understand how to "feel" the music is getting them to not be embarassed about it. The social pressures in school and not looking "cool" in front of their peers, doesn't help either. However, once you get them to move past all that, the possibilies really begin to open up for students to "get it". Each student will move at their own pace so patience is key. I send my students out to attend to fine art events per school year. They are supposed to then collect their thoughts and write how these performances made them feel. Although not direct participants as they would in their own concerts, I want to be able to emote onto paper. This is just another way of getting students to appreciate the arts and hopefully "feel" the performance they attended. I find that once my students have a place they can mentally go to when they are playing their instrument, that the quality of their own performance is superior then when they do not. They relation or feeling something while performing makes for a musical performance. -J. Daeschler (June 2006)
As a musician, educator and instructional media designer I see and experienced aesthetics from many angles. As the quote about the role of aesthetics from Maxine Greene states above, "...designed to nurture appreciative, reflective, cultural, participatory engagements with the arts..." There are so many ways to incorporate aesthetics beyond the "participatory" which is SO important but often the thing eliminated from the budget first unfortunately. To incorporate good design in the things you put in front of students, is a critical area of aesthetic engagement especially in this new era of teacher created electronic media. It's not be expected that each teacher be an accomplished graphic designer, but working within their abilities, with taste, is unfortunately often missed. There's a lot appreciation and reflection possible as we consume and create electronic media in the classroom. J. Tubbs (2007)
References and other links of interest
Abbs, P. (1991). Defining the aesthetic field. in R.A. Smith and A. Simpson (Eds.). Aesthetics and Arts Education. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 244-255.
Aspin, D.N. (1991). Justifying Music Education. in R.A. Smith and A. Simpson (Eds.). Aesthetics and Arts Education. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 215-225.
Connell, J.M. (2000). Aesthetic experiences in the school curriculum: Assessing the value of Rosenblatt’s transactional theory. Journal of Aesthetics Education 34(1), 27-35.
Crawford, D.W. (1991). The question of aesthetics. in R.A. Smith and A. Simpson (Eds.). Aesthetics and Arts Education. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 18-31.
Feldman. E.B. (1970). Becoming Human Through Art: Aesthetic Experience in the School. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
Greene, Maxine. (2001) Variation on a Blue Guitar: The Lincoln Center Institute Lectures on Aesthetic Education. New York: Teachers College Press, 5-6.
Hicks, J. (1999). It’s catch-up time for aesthetics. Art Education 52(4), 42-46.
Venable, B.B. (2001). Using role play to teach and learn aesthetics. Art Education 54(1). 47-51.
