Aesthetic education and art education: urban and rural areas should be under the same blue sky
“Except for a very small number of top students, the musical quality of most students is almost blank. They can sing smoothly and completely. "There are very few songs in the textbook with acceptable pitch and rhythm; the vast majority of students cannot read musical notation, and very few can read simple musical notation; instrumental music classes have not been carried out, and no one can play an instrument." Yubei District, Chongqing City, in 2008. In September and March 2009, we conducted two surveys on the music subject situation in primary and secondary schools in rural areas, and found that the current situation of music education is not optimistic and even worrying. The survey found that a total of 62 primary and secondary schools in the district that participated in the survey should be equipped with 70 full-time music teachers, but in fact only 12 were equipped with only 1 piano, only 1 electronic keyboard, and only 6 organs. Most schools have redundant There are vacant classrooms but no dedicated music classrooms; there are only two schools with complete teaching materials, but complete teaching materials and recordings.
Not only in Yubei District of Chongqing City, the uneven development of art education and aesthetic education between urban and rural areas is prevalent in many areas across the country. The shortage of full-time art education teachers and the serious lack of investment in courses are the most prominent manifestations. Music and art teachers in many schools are part-time, and art and physical education classes have become "tie-in classes" for teachers of Chinese, mathematics, foreign languages ??and other subjects. Music and art subjects are just subsidiary "leisure classes" for Chinese and mathematics teachers to increase their workload. These courses are also regarded as "playing classes" for adjustments. Some schools even treat music, art and other courses as optional classes, which can be occupied or adjusted at will. Even if there are arrangements in the class schedule, those who are really taking all the courses are not not much.
In addition, there is only one textbook, and the teacher only teaches with his mouth. There are no speakers, organs, percussion, curriculum standards, or teacher's books to assist teaching. This is the norm in rural music classes. In some schools, because music and art subjects are not subjects for entrance exams, there are also unscientific phenomena in the calculation of teachers' workload, as well as the assessment and evaluation process. When calculating the proportion of class hours in some rural schools, art and physical education teachers only count 0.8 per class, while main teachers can count 1.2 or 1.5. If things go on like this, the enthusiasm and work efficiency of art teachers will be affected.
Some experts pointed out that in the same world and the same blue sky, rural children also have the need to receive art education and aesthetic education. The goal of "coordinated and balanced development of urban and rural areas" requires reasonable and effective measures and mature supporting policy guidance. It also requires a fundamental change in concepts and a true awareness of the importance of art education and aesthetic education in shaping young people's personality. Don’t give aesthetic education and art education a utilitarian cloak
The lack of aesthetic education and art education makes people worried; the “overheating” of aesthetic education and art education also makes people cry out.
We have seen that in order to increase the admission rate, some high schools blindly offer "crash courses" in art, regardless of students' interests, and encourage students and parents who have entered high school to take the so-called "curved college entrance examination" for arts specialties. Some colleges and universities, regardless of the fact that their art teaching resources are insufficient, are scrambling to open and expand art majors. The reason is that in addition to the attraction of high tuition fees for art majors, they also gain in the "art exams" held across the country every year. The high registration fee is also an important reason.
Let’s look at a set of comparisons between domestic and foreign countries.
America, a public place in Washington. Open-air vocal and instrumental music performances by college students are often held here. The performance level is average, but parents and audiences give warm applause. There is no doubt that this greatly encourages and stimulates students' awareness of autonomy and development potential.
In contrast, in my country, the popularity of art education is average, but student art groups have repeatedly won awards internationally and their performance levels are quite high. This is because a large part of the groups are students with artistic talents. They not only have fixed rehearsal time, and often hire well-known artists to guide rehearsals. The awards of these clubs can greatly enhance the reputation of the school and attract more students. In this way, art education gradually took on the cloak of utilitarianism, and art became a thing of beauty, making it aspirational but out of reach for ordinary children.
There is a saying that the development and maturity of aesthetic education will go through three stages: art and technology education - artistic quality education - aesthetic and emotional education. Although the existence of these three stages is reasonable, the effects are obviously different. Only when aesthetic education develops to the third stage, aesthetic emotional education, the ultimate essence of aesthetic education and the goal of quality education can be truly realized. Expert perspective: Pay attention to the "humanistic orientation" of art education
Nowadays, whether it is from the education circle or from the society as a whole, it is still a quite common tendency to underestimate humanistic education and art education. .
Economic construction and modernization are not simply a scientific and technological issue, nor simply a material issue, but include multiple aspects such as culture, spirit, and value. Humanistic education can provide value guidance and the meaning of life. Without humanistic education, there will be phenomena such as inverted value evaluation, confusion of values, spiritual emptiness, and loss of faith. Spiritual crises will occur, and social stability and development will be seriously threatened. .
Nowadays, the number of college students and middle school students with different psychological disorders and mental illnesses is increasing. In order to alleviate this situation, in addition to strengthening moral education and physical education, aesthetic education and art education should also be strengthened, because aesthetic education and Art education can affect a person's emotions, taste, temperament, and mind, which is difficult to achieve by moral education and intellectual education.
Therefore, while strengthening scientific education, we must also strengthen humanistic education including art education, so as to continuously improve the taste and style of students and guide students to continuously improve their realm of life.
Of course, it is not enough to just emphasize the strengthening of art and aesthetic education. We also need to emphasize paying attention to the humanistic connotation and humanistic orientation in the field of art and art education, such as outlook on life, values, style, interest, etc.
Nowadays, some new art forms in the fields of film, television, Internet and other fields have an increasing impact on young people. We should pay attention to these new phenomena in the field of art education, especially since there are many Urgent issues deserve our research, and care should be taken to bring these areas into the perspective of art education.
Taking the so-called "blockbusters" that currently monopolize the movie theater circuit as an example, the fun, style, and values ????permeating in these "blockbusters" have a great impact on the majority of young people, to some extent more than in-school classroom teaching. Impact on adolescents. As a teacher, I hope that our own films, TV shows, music, art works, as well as advertising culture, Internet culture, mobile phone culture, etc., should focus on showing healthy things in Chinese culture and Chinese history to our younger generation. , positive things, beautiful things, to spread healthy style and fun.
In addition, the construction of the cultural environment of the campus and the construction of the cultural environment of the entire society are also issues worthy of attention. Universities, secondary schools and primary schools should try their best to create a strong cultural and artistic atmosphere, and universities should also create a strong academic atmosphere. (Ye Lang, Director of the Aesthetics and Aesthetic Education Research Center of Peking University) How did art education become a "stepping stone"
A remote primary school was holding an art class, and there was a statue of Venus de Milo on the podium. Plaster statue. The director of education who came to inspect the teaching work walked into the classroom and asked a student: Why does this statue have no arms? The student timidly replied: I didn't break it. The teacher hurriedly explained: This statue was crippled when I bought it, with no arms. The principal embarrassedly smoothed things over and said: The school was short of funds, so what we bought was a defective product. The director was very angry and said to the principal: No matter how poor you are, you can't afford education. Next time, you must buy a good one with arms...
Although this joke is a bit exaggerated, it reflects the current problems of art education from one aspect. Common problems: School art education is marginalized, with monotonous form, lack of content, and lack of teachers. In some places, schools do not even offer music and art classes, which seriously affects the all-round development of students. A professor from Peking University discovered during an investigation in remote rural schools that some primary school students could not even sing the national anthem, and music classes were almost in name only. For this reason, people in the education sector call for art education not to become a patent for urban children.
In cities, does art education make people optimistic? This is absolutely not the case! Art education that has been distorted, utilitarian, and become a "stepping stone" to further education is also deeply worrying.
This summer, registrations for various off-campus art training classes in Tianjin are booming. Do parents want their children to receive the influence of art and beauty, or do they have the purpose of "letting their children learn special skills and take exams for exams in the future"? A few days ago A survey shows that 70% of parents in Tianjin are "utilitarian" towards art education, and only 30% of parents purely want their children to be influenced by art. This has affected the curriculum and teaching objectives of art training institutions to a certain extent.
In fact, this phenomenon is very common in cities. During the art examination season every year, the art departments of major universities are crowded. Some universities collect more than 2 million yuan in examination registration fees alone in one day. Art examinations have almost formed a huge industrial chain. What's going on behind the boom in art exams? Zou Jianping, a representative of the National People's Congress and dean of Nanjing University of the Arts, puts it bluntly: Nowadays, many students apply for art academies. This does not mean that they worship art and have artistic aesthetic needs. Some have no Students with artistic sensibilities often regard the "art exam" as a "stepping stone" to enter university.
Incorporating aesthetic education into the national education policy as a training goal alongside "moral, intellectual, and physical" is to focus on the all-round development of people and a century-old plan. As an important way and means to achieve the goal of aesthetic education, the significance of art education is self-evident. However, in the current educational environment, due to the utilitarianism that aims at further education, art education has gone out of tune, changed its flavor, and lost its essential meaning.
To reverse the tendency of marginalization and utilitarianism in art education, we should start from art education in schools. As far as the current art education in schools is concerned, there are not many class hours, the investment is not large, and it is not difficult to carry out. The key is an environment, public opinion and atmosphere that values, cares for and protects art education. If the leaders of government departments and various schools lack a basic understanding and correct understanding of art education, and cannot fundamentally solve the crux of marginalization and utilitarianism in art education, the joke of "buying a Venus with arms" may really come true. became a reality.