Dewey Children's Aesthetic Thinking

John Dewey is a famous philosopher and educator in America. His thought on aesthetic education is well-known in China, but the thought on child aesthetic education as one of his bright thoughts has not been systemically studied. This article elaborates the origins and nucleus of Dewey's thought on child aesthetic education, the practice of it at school and its influence on Chinese education.This article is divided into five chapters.The first chapter expounds that Deway's thought has been influenced by the development of the society at his time when America is at the stage of urbanization and industrialization and shows the dominate features of American philosophy and aesthetic thoughts. This chapter also analyzes how Darwin's evolution, Kant's philosophy, and Jame's psycology influence Dewey's child aesthetic education.Chapter 2 analyzes and explains the foundation of Dewey's thought on child aesthetic education. Art as experience is the nucleus of Dewey's thought. How to apply this famous thought to child aesthetic education is the key point of this chapter.To start with, Dewey talked about the definition of arts (the nature of arts and his view on arts).Then, Dewey explained experience again that the most perfect experience in daily life forms arts and arts is the advanced state of experience.Chapter 3 summarizes the nucleus of Dewey's thoughts on child aesthetic education. Dewey proposed that educators should put arts education to children. Starting with analyzing the relationship between arts and education (the essence of arts is education and education can become arts), the writer expounds that the nucleus of Dewey's thoughts on child aesthetic education (child-centered and learning from doing) is to let children accumulate more aesthetic experience in study and daily life.Chapter 4 shows us the practice of Dewey's thoughts on child aesthetic education in such aspects as activities about the spreading Dewey's thoughts and the practice on aesthetic education at school. Dewey is an actor. In his life, he sowed America with seeds of arts with a group of people who have deep affection for aesthetic education. The practice of his theory on child aesthetic education in his Laboratory school is a good example to other schools in America and other countries.Chapter 5 discusses the spreading of Dewey's child aesthetic education in China and the influence of it on China. Different scholars having different viewpoints on Dewey's idea about child aesthetic education shows us that there is still great room for people to understand Dewey's thoughts and that it needs time to prove the value of his thoughts. Meanwhile, this dissertation puts forward that Dewey's thoughts on child aesthetic education is not perfect and it can't wholly meet our needs,so we Chinese people should exam and borrow it critically.