“Somaesthetics,” Education, and Disability1

Abstract

Pleasure is as integral to learning as effort.It is an emotive sign of achievement and a source of motivation for further learning.Learners do not exist separate from their bodies; they are biological entities with basic needs for sustenance and stimulation.John Dewey understood this in his writings on aesthetics.In Art as Experience, Dewey refers to a person as a "live creature" interacting with an enveloping environment.Dewey argued that all qualities of the live creature's experiences have aesthetic roots, combining sensory perception with cognitive function.2 Hence, an aesthetically pleasing experience interweaves the body and the mind with the environment.If pleasure is critical to learning, it is no less important to persons with disabilities who are also live creatures.Yet, persons with disability may experience environment, in its broadest sense, as presenting obstacles to pleasure.This poses an educational question, since some pleasures may be especially useful for the most basic learning of persons with disabilities.Through the sensory modes that inhere in the body -touch, smell, and proprioception (that is, the neuroanatomical feedback necessary for movement and balance) -the live creature takes stock of itself and the surrounding world.

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