To educate to appreciate beauty

Abstract

One of the most important challenges man has always faced is the education of a young generation. Each curriculum defines its own education objectives and describes key methods and activities to achieve the set goals. Without a doubt, the most serious challenge to the whole process of education is to nurture the right values in young people. Pedagogy draws on anthropology, ethics and axiology in its theoretical underpinnings. The ethical and moral values which are most often discussed in the context of education, particularly social education, are: personal dignity, truth, goodness, freedom, love, responsibility and patriotism. A somewhat forgotten value in the modern theory of education is beauty and the education to appreciate beauty. The article attempts to present beauty as both an aesthetic and ethical value which should be taught in the process of integral human education. The most important task teachers face in this respect is to strive for a harmonious fusion of the following four virtues in the student’s morality: prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice.