Aesthetic education has three meanings. To start, it means education through a high proportion of artistic activities.
Every child that paints a lot or plays a lot of music or dances a lot or reads a lot and plays lots of theatre or even all of these combined is undergoing aesthetic education. The quality depends to a considerable extent on the pedagogical skill of the respective teachers and their ability to uncover and promote the child’s potential. Secondly, aesthetic education means that the lesson itself becomes artistic. All great art breathes. A lesson can also breathe between heaviness and lightness, between seriousness and cheerfulness. […] Thirdly, aesthetic education in the sense of Schiller’s aesthetic freedom education involves a four-stage process: 1. The cognitive perception of the forces of nature, soul, and spirit in the child. 2. The development of the most sacred feelings towards these forces. 3. Receiving unique pedagogical ideas for the individual case, spoken by nature itself. 4. The sacrificial love for the implementation of pedagogical intuitions.
From Valentin Wember and Martin Kollewijn, Schiller’s Aesthetic Freedom Education Tübingen 2021
Image Sofia Lismont
