At first glance, this piece from Art as Experience may not have much bearing on education, especially for early childhood teachers. Why did I ask you to read it?
I'll confess. This is my favorite piece by Dewey -- EVAR (as the kids say). I'm personally and professionally interested in aesthetics, particularly aesthetics and popular culture, but that's not why it's my favorite nor is it why I asked you to read this piece. In fact, all the stuff about art up until about halfway through page 395 is sort of extraneous to my major point in assigning The Live Creature. I find that stuff intensely interesting and am more than willing to talk about it, but it's not our focus.
Our focus, instead, is what Dewey says must be the origin of an aesthetic theory -- an understanding of ordinary experience. That's what the rest of the essay is about. He approaches it from a naturalistic point of view, in trying to understand what the experience of a human being has in common with that, say, of a dog. If we can nail that down, I think we'll get at not just the heart of the piece, but at a vital point for understanding Dewey's overall project.
To help, here are two key concepts -- equilibrium, consummation.
Once we get that down, here's a question: What is the role of aesthetic experience in schooling?
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Throughout class I was thinking about equilibrium and how it applies to life in general and this is what I came up with. Everytime I felt as though I was in equilibrium I was not. But I did not know I was unequal until later, so thinking back to those times that I was in "equilibrium" my life was boring, until I found something else to stress about or do. I have this idea that people like to be unequal because it keeps them busy and always wondering about something. BUT, what if for a day or even an hour you were in equilibrium. Would anything change?
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