Aesthetics and the Art Curriculum

Abstract

This was the position taken by Kim Wagaman, fourth-grade student in Oley, Pennsylvania, when her art teacher, Jeff Dietrich, showed her and her classmates computer-generated drawing of Grant Wood's American Gothic and asked them if they considered the picture and others like to be art.1 He also asked them whether they thought all pictures made by computers are Another student in the class agreed with Kim, stating that the picture is art because it wasn't exactly made by the computer. It had to be put into the computer. All the computer did was store the image. A few others said was art because it was made to be looked at as art. Claiming that just about anything can be art, one student referred to the art of contemporary artist whose work consisted of what he referred to as a pile of rocks. There were some detractors, like the student who said the computer picture was not art because there is no natural talent in it. The real way of painting would be forgotten (if art could be made by computers).2 All of the fourth graders had been engaged in discussion of computers and art before being asked to write their thoughts on worksheet prepared for their comments. Engagement in discussions such as the one about computers is regular occurrence in this teacher's classes, where students often are asked to think, talk, and write about philosophical issues. Art Linkletter reminded us that kids say the damdest things.3 Some of us remember the segment on his television show in which we took delight

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