Artistic and aesthetic education of preschool children

The system of aesthetic education implies such a pedagogical influence on the child that contributes to the development of his ability to perceive the beauty around him, to distinguish the beautiful, harmonious from the ugly. Over time, young people should not only be able to appreciate the beauty of nature and human relationships, but also experience the need for aesthetic activity.

Aesthetic
education
is one of the areas of pedagogy, the main goal of which is to teach a person to understand and appreciate beauty.

Aesthetic education has a personal orientation and should cover the following aspects of children’s development:

1. Formation of needs in the field of art and artistic values.
2. Cultivating the ability for artistic perception, which would cover many areas of aesthetic phenomena.
3. Mastering knowledge to understand art, developing the ability to express one’s own judgments and views on the artistic embodiment of reality.

The concept of aesthetic education

Aesthetic taste does not develop suddenly, but over many years. It arises in the process of working on the aesthetic growth of a child’s personality, when parents and teachers try to develop creative abilities in him.

This area of ​​education has a complex impact on the individual, permeates all areas of activity, affects the depth of thinking and feelings, life attitudes, and selectivity. It is closely interconnected with all areas of education, especially moral, since it has an emotional impact, makes one experience a range of complex feelings, acts as an organizer of spiritual growth, and a regulator of behavior.

The development of a person’s aesthetic culture is indicated by the absence of vulgarity in behavior and the ability to appreciate the poetry of high feelings, relationships, and creative work.

Children not only need to have a need for aesthetic activity, but also actively apply the acquired system of knowledge and skills in everyday life. Children's creativity trains memory, forms mental reactions, and teaches planning. The very first lessons of aesthetics, using examples of natural phenomena and the native land, give rise to the foundations of patriotism, love for loved ones, and the Motherland.

Goals and objectives of aesthetic and artistic education

In a broad sense, aesthetic education is understood as the purposeful formation in a person of an aesthetic attitude to reality.

This is a specific type of socially significant activity carried out by a subject (society and its specialized institutions) in relation to an object (individual, personality, group, collective, community) with the aim of developing in the latter a system of orientation in the world of aesthetic and artistic values ​​in accordance with the prevailing ones in the given society with ideas about their essence and purpose.

The process of education introduces a person to values ​​and transforms them into internal spiritual content. It is on this basis that a person’s ability to perceive and experience aesthetically, his aesthetic taste, and idea of ​​the ideal is formed and developed.

Education through beauty and with the help of beauty forms not only:

• Aesthetic and value-oriented personality, as well as
• Develops the ability for creativity, aesthetic values ​​in work, in everyday life, in actions, in behavior and, of course, in art (which should be considered the main task of aesthetic education).
• Develops human cognitive abilities.
• It teaches a person to perceive ready-made products of aesthetic activity.

Researchers note that education through the formation of “aesthetic thinking” contributes to a holistic comprehension of the characteristics of the culture of a certain era at the individual level and an understanding of their unity and stylistic kinship, which, according to scientists, is a necessary condition for their theoretical knowledge.

Aesthetic education, introducing a person to the treasury of world culture and art is only a necessary condition for achieving the main goal of aesthetic education - the formation of an integral personality, a creatively developed individuality, acting according to the laws of beauty.

Aesthetic education has two functions, which represent a unity of opposites:

• Formation of aesthetic and value orientation of the individual;
• Development of his aesthetic and creative potential.

The main tasks of aesthetic education can be reduced to the following provisions:

• Develop the ability to perceive and experience the beauty of nature and social reality; draw conclusions in them about what is socially mediated as an aesthetic phenomenon;
• To instill the ability not only to actively perceive works of art, but also to understand and appreciate them
• To develop in every person the desire to skillfully use their creative powers and abilities; develop the need for beauty and the ability to understand and enjoy it
• To conscientiously strive for the affirmation of beauty in everything: in nature and social life, in work, in social and personal relationships, in everyday life and in personal behavior.

Based on the established practice of educational work, the following structural components of aesthetic education are usually distinguished:

• Aesthetic education, which lays the theoretical and value foundations of the aesthetic culture of the individual;
• Art education in its educational-theoretical and artistic-practical manifestation, the formation of an individual’s artistic culture in the unity of skills, knowledge, value orientations, tastes; aesthetic self-education and self-education aimed at self-improvement of the individual;
• Nurturing creative needs and abilities. Among the latter, the so-called constructive abilities are especially important: individual self-expression, intuitive thinking, creative imagination, recognizing problems, overcoming stereotypes, etc.

The importance of aesthetic education

Humanity began to understand its relevance since ancient times. Many thinkers and poets argued that with its help it was possible to establish a society of harmony and justice and that “beauty will save the world.”

The educational power of art lies in the fact that with its help a person is able to experience such intense feelings as joy and sadness, love and hatred, admiration and disappointment. Once experienced after reading a fairy tale or theatrical production, they are transferred by the child to real life phenomena.

Culture and literature play no less a role in the spiritual life of society than science. With their help, young people also learn about the world, develop their consciousness, and strengthen their views and beliefs.

The potential of natural aesthetic possibilities is not always realized if feelings are not “humanized” by education. Having impeccable hearing, you may not understand the beauty of a piece of music, but having excellent eyesight, you may not be able to appreciate a masterpiece of fine art or the splendor of nature.

The task of educators is to develop in students the ability to perceive and appreciate the beauty in the surrounding nature, work and even everyday life.

Aesthetic education in the family

The task of parents is to teach the child to see, hear and understand everything that surrounds him. It is necessary to develop artistic taste and learn to identify the beauty around you from early childhood. You need to try to interest the child in modeling and drawing, try your hand at singing or music.

The ability to perceive beauty, enjoy works of art, and later to create independently is born gradually. Some children show a passion for drawing, others for music; talents manifest themselves as the children become able to perceive and understand beauty.

In a family setting, it is important to thoughtfully organize aesthetic education. A child’s artistic abilities can be harmed by excessive vanity of parents who praise their child in every possible way. Inflated self-esteem becomes an obstacle to learning and stifles talent. The result is that more modest but persistent peers achieve greater creative success over time.

Theoretical foundations and methods of music education

Parents need to carefully select material for comprehension. Radio and TV running for hours give superficial impressions and do not force you to think. Fiction provides vivid images and demonstrates the logic of the plot. Preschoolers eagerly listen to fairy tales and world classics; they learn the ability to read expressively through examples of artistic reading by famous artists.

Even the most outstanding works can leave you indifferent if they are not performed properly. The same applies to painting, sculpture, music.

The role of the family in artistic and aesthetic education

No matter how important the kindergarten and all kinds of clubs and studios play in a child’s life, the most significant role in shaping his artistic taste and idea of ​​beauty will be played by his family. It is the parents and their contribution to the child’s upbringing that will play a decisive role in the development of his personality in the future.

Only parents can help their child start music lessons

What should you pay attention to first and what forms of organizing and conducting aesthetic education for preschoolers will be more effective?

Personal example. Who is the first moral and aesthetic ideal in the life of any person? Of course, his parents. It is their behavior and habits that the child will unconsciously copy in the first years of life, and it is they who will subsequently develop into established and strengthened forms of behavior. Therefore, any parent who wants to raise a well-mannered and cultured child should be primarily interested in self-development and self-education.

The manners of behavior accepted in the family, the forms of interaction with others, the criteria by which the beautiful is separated from the ugly, what is acceptable from what is unacceptable, all this will subsequently be adopted by the child. And on these foundations his worldview, view of the world, etc. will be built.

A children's book is one of the means of aesthetic education.
Proper aesthetic education of preschool children in the family and its methods are built on many basic components of its organization:

1. A culture of appearance is expressed by observing body culture, the rules of basic hygiene, the ability to choose an outfit in accordance with the requirements of the environment, and the ability to create an overall aesthetically consistent composition of clothing and accessories.
2. Culture of emotions; the ability to sincerely show one’s condition without crossing the boundaries of what is permitted.
3. Reasonable discipline; the presence of mandatory regulations.
4. General artistic taste. The child should be able to see around him works of art used to decorate everyday life: these could be paintings, works of decorative and applied art, etc.
5. Aesthetics of everyday life. The opportunity to aesthetically design the surrounding space of the house helps the child take for granted his home and value it. This is where the development of respect for one’s home and the ability to maintain cleanliness and order in it begins.
6. Communication culture. The opportunity to have confidential conversations with your child on current and exciting topics. Formation of a child’s idea of ​​subordination and distance in communication.
7. The force that awakens a child’s artistic taste is also nature, which embodies the harmony and beauty of the world. Walking in the fresh air, accompanied by an adult's stories about the world around him, will teach him to see beauty in it. And later use it as a source of inspiration for constructive creative activity.
8. Their favorite holidays can also tap into a child’s creative skills. Parents can involve their child by involving him in preparing for the holiday. Invite him to come up with, draw, and later bring to life the original design of the room or playground. Thanks to this, the child gets the opportunity not only to develop and discover his talents, but also to share his first discoveries with other children.

Everyday culture is an important factor in cultivating a sense of beauty

The place of aesthetic culture of education in society

Aesthetic culture is one of the elements of public culture, one of its oldest forms, which arose in the era of primitive man. Only over time did it acquire a somewhat independent meaning, but even now it appears in the form of a kind of philosophy, reflecting a person’s rich attitude to the world, his desire for perfection and ideal.

Since ancient times, the idea of ​​beauty has been interpreted quite broadly: health, wealth, and everything that was useful were considered beautiful. Beauty was considered not only from the point of view of aesthetics, but also ethics, economics, and a perfect object or state was recognized as beautiful.

In our society, there is a clearly visible gap between the social significance of aesthetic culture and its real state. Traditional cultural and moral values ​​are replaced by rational and logical ones, which leads to a lack of emotionality in relationships, rudeness and cynicism, and a primitivization of life guidelines.

Depending on a specific era of life, ideas about beauty may change. The concept of beauty is rather inherent in external form. The beautiful does not depend on time and carries within itself harmony, perfection, and humanistic spiritual components.

The modern busy, overpopulated world is educationally untenable. It produces only educated consumers, and the principle of aesthetic education presupposes the creation of conditions for development, the creative disclosure of each individuality.

Art at school

A.A. Melik-Pashayev

HUMANIZATION OF SCHOOL AND PROBLEMS OF AESTHETIC EDUCATION

Today we see in school not just an educational institution with its own purely school problems, we see in it a reflection of all the contradictions and diseases of the adult world and at the same time the embryo of the future, the opportunity to move forward, the “growth point” of human society. And it becomes obvious that the most important, urgent and difficult tasks of the school lie in the area of ​​educating a growing person: the formation of a spiritual image, effective ideals and values, a creative attitude to life in entire generations of young people. The need for all this has become so acute that the traditional problems of improving school knowledge, despite their importance, recede into the background, especially since failures in the field of education also affect how a person acquires and applies knowledge. The core of the educational process should be the formation of the student’s personality—this is the main direction of school restructuring. Related to this are persistent calls to humanize the school: only a humanized school can educate a person.

However, most school subjects, considered basic, currently cannot purposefully educate the individual. And the point is not in the shortcomings of teaching these subjects, but in their historically established focus on knowledge of purely objective laws and facts of the external world, and not on solving educational problems. Therefore, the humanization of the content of education (and not just the nature of pedagogical communication and the organization of life of the school community), which would give it an educational function, cannot be carried out with the speed that time requires.

Almost the only opportunity in the very near future to solve serious educational problems within the framework of school programs is provided by the artistic cycle: literature, music, fine arts, since it is these subjects, due to the specificity of their content, that are capable of shaping the inner world of a growing person. But in today's school this channel is blocked, and the artistic cycle turns out to be fruitless at best. There are many reasons. These are, first of all, inadequate methods of teaching these subjects, a deep misunderstanding of their meaning and capabilities, as well as an extreme underestimation of children’s ability to master them creatively. This is the status of artistic disciplines as tertiary [2], and the corresponding attitude of children to art lessons and to art itself, and an indulgent dessert (at best!) attitude to aesthetic education on the part of parents, teachers, and school administrators who went through the same school .

There is no other area of ​​pedagogy where there would be such a waste of educational potential, such a gap between enormous opportunities and insignificant results, as in aesthetic education through the teaching of artistic disciplines! Meanwhile, almost all the phenomena of our life that are usually united under the name of “lack of spirituality” - emotional dullness, lack of mercy, environmental awareness, historical memory, creative initiative, utilitarian attitude towards everything in life, etc., etc. P. are largely due to the fact that many generations of people do not receive a full-fledged aesthetic education during their school years and are not even aware of the extent of their deprivation.

In the process of humanizing the school, its reorientation towards the goals of education (and this is not a correction of the traditional education system, not even a reform, but a kind of revolution, a change in the “pedagogical paradigm”), the subjects of the artistic cycle must move from the distant periphery of school life to its very center, become the leading element in the restructuring of the school, change its atmosphere and, over time, influence the teaching of many other, and perhaps all, subjects.

These statements may cause confusion and even protest. In fact, is it right to attach such serious importance to omissions in aesthetic education and pin such hopes on its improvement? We are accustomed to thinking that aesthetic education is the acquisition of the ability to “notice and appreciate the beautiful,” or some knowledge and skills in the field of art, or other private qualities that, for all their attractiveness, do not determine the spiritual and moral appearance of a person. (Therefore, by the way, aesthetic education should be supplemented by other, more important, although also limited and partial: moral, patriotic, environmental, etc.)

It is clear that an effective program of universal aesthetic education must be built on a more solid foundation. This or that pedagogical influence can be called “education” only in those cases when its goal is the formation of a person as an integral personality, the formation of his attitude to everything, in the world and to himself. And every single “type of education” is like a facet of an indivisible whole, through which, refracted in a special way, all other facets are visible. Therefore, each type of education solves the entirety of educational tasks, but sees them from a special perspective, places emphasis in its own way, and makes one of the aspects of the comprehensive relationship “man - world” the leader.

Below we will try to show this using the example of aesthetic education. For now, let us agree to understand it not as the development of individual qualities and abilities in a student, but as the formation of a holistic personality based on her aesthetic experience.

The concept of “aesthetic education,” on the one hand, is associated in our minds with art, on the other, it presupposes something broader, not special, universal in its meaning. There is no contradiction in this: behind every fact of creativity in any form of art lies something much more general and primary: a person’s special attitude to life. Not to art, but precisely to reality, which has not yet been transformed by anyone’s artistic creativity[3]. We will further call this special attitude of a person to reality an aesthetic attitude, having stipulated in advance that we use this term in a meaning significantly different from the generally accepted one.

Being one of the essential human forces, the aesthetic attitude to life is potentially characteristic of every person, characterizes him as a person as a whole and does not imply mandatory involvement in art as a profession. But under certain conditions, this quality acts as the psychological fundamental basis of a person’s artistic and creative talent. It gives rise to the phenomenon of art, the artistic exploration of the world, and finds its most complete expression in it. From this point of view, the artistic culture of humanity is, as it were, a clot of the aesthetic relationship of Man to the World. Therefore, it is the introduction to art that is the most effective means of awakening in every person a similar attitude towards life.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN AESTHETIC ATTITUDE TO LIFE IS THE GOAL OF UNIVERSAL AESTHETIC EDUCATION

The main goal of aesthetic education of schoolchildren, as follows from the above, is to, by introducing children to a special field of art, to develop in them the universal human ability of an aesthetic attitude to life [4].

But what is the psychological content that we put into this concept? What is its spiritual, moral value and educational significance? The answer is complicated by the specifics of the subject: we are talking about holistic experiences, the essence of which cannot be adequately comprehended in a purely rational way and completely expressed in unambiguous formulations. They can only be truly understood through empathy; The researcher is required to have his own holistic experience, similar to the one being studied. Therefore, theoretical works and individual statements of outstanding masters of art, who sought to comprehend their own experience of an aesthetic attitude towards the world, the deep-seated characteristics of the artist’s personality, and the psychological conditions for the emergence of creative ideas, acquire special significance. Getting acquainted with this extensive material, we discover that people who were separated by centuries and continents, who had dissimilar worldviews and worked in different fields of art, are so in agreement with each other, as if they were describing one enduring phenomenon of artistic consciousness.

First of all, a person with a developed aesthetic attitude does not feel like a separate “I”, to which the external world, natural and social, confronts as something alienated and objective. On the contrary, he directly experiences his participation, “same nature” in the world; the world reveals itself to him as his world, “the world of man” (K. Marx), and he recognizes himself as an integral part of the world5. This can be defined as the conscious experience of ontological unity with the world. With the utmost brevity, this experience is expressed by the famous line of F. Tyutchev: “Everything is in me, and I am in everything!...”

This experience of expanded self-awareness and self-awareness gives rise to a deep personal need for renewal, enrichment, and comprehension of such experiences (which, by the way, creates a motivational basis for a person’s independent work on aesthetic self-education).

A specific object of aesthetic attitude, be it another person, a natural phenomenon or a work of human culture, is perceived as existing “in the first person” as a certain “I”, as a bearer of an intrinsically valuable inner life, different and at the same time related to the perceiving person. A developed aesthetic attitude does not allow us to treat anything as a “dumb thing” (M.M. Bakhtin), designed only to serve as a useful means to achieve some utilitarian goal; it removes its object from the plane of its usual practical functioning and reveals the intrinsic value of its unique existence. S.L. Rubinstein noted a very important aspect of the aesthetic attitude when he defined it as “affirmation of the existence of an object,” and in this regard emphasized the importance of contemplation, which, in contrast to transformative activity, values ​​the surrounding reality in itself, in its own being, of which it is also a part. the contemplating person himself [13; 374].

Aesthetic, as is known, means “related to sensory perception.” And a characteristic feature of the relationship under consideration, which emphasizes its uniqueness precisely as an aesthetic relationship, is that the inner life, the special value significance of phenomena is revealed to a person in connection with the perception of their unique sensory appearance. From this point of view, the aesthetic attitude to the world is the ability to perceive the sensory appearance of objects and phenomena as a direct expression of character, the state of fate, the internal life akin to the perceiving person, and thanks to this, consciously experience one’s involvement in the world.

Since, as has already been said, such an attitude to reality underlies the artistic exploration of the world and is objectified in its products, the specific task of a teacher, methodologist, psychologist working in the field of aesthetic education becomes clear: to teach art in such a way that, while joining it in a creative way, In practice and in the perception of works, each child discovered in himself the universal human ability of an aesthetic attitude towards the world. As M. Prishvin said, “the artist’s ability to see the world means an endless expansion of the usual ability of all people for related attention (this is how the writer defined a quality very close to what in this article is called an aesthetic attitude. - A.M.). The limits of this kindred attention are endlessly expanded through art - this ability of especially gifted people, artists, to see the world from the face" [12; 352].

Developing within the framework of artistic activity, the aesthetic attitude in its meaning turns out to be much broader than it and acts as a holistic characteristic of the individual. It would be naive, of course, to expect that the development of an aesthetic attitude in itself will solve all the specific problems of human upbringing: this can only happen indirectly and under the influence of many factors. But it creates a common spiritual and moral basis for this, since it brings a person a sense of belonging to the world around him and the non-utilitarian value of life.

AESTHETIC ATTITUDE TO LIFE AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE ABILITIES

The ideas about aesthetic attitude outlined above allow us to consider from a new point of view the psychological content of the concept of artistic and creative abilities and the problem of their development.

In the famous works of B.M. Teplov, as well as a number of his followers, interpret abilities for various types of art as a set of individual, fairly elementary qualities necessary to perform a given activity. But in the same studies, and above all by Teplov, a fundamentally different approach to the problem of abilities was outlined, although not implemented. With this approach, the researcher’s attention comes to more general qualities of the psyche, which are not at all similar to the individual components of abilities, and it is precisely such qualities that ultimately turn out to be decisive for a person’s artistic creativity. Let's give a few randomly chosen examples.

B.M. Teplov says, for example, that a great artist is distinguished by “the ability... to immerse himself emotionally in the captivating content and concentrate all his mental strength on it.” He writes that N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov had a developed visual imagination, a strong sense of nature, etc., and emphasizes that these qualities cannot be considered along with musical abilities themselves as an important, but “non-musical” addition to them. “That’s the point,” writes B.M. Teplov, - that Rimsky-Korsakov’s visual imagination was musical, and he felt nature musically.” And the conclusion is drawn: “A person does not have any abilities that do not depend on the general orientation of his personality” [14; 42-53].

Let us pay attention to two circumstances. First: we are talking about such an orientation that makes the entire human psyche “musical”, i.e. It is precisely this, and not individual mental qualities, that turns out to be, relatively speaking, the main musical ability. And second: the action of this orientation is not confined within the framework of musical activity itself, but determines the composer’s attitude to everything in life and thanks to this nourishes his musical creativity.

But in his specific studies, the scientist deliberately limited himself to the analysis of individual mental qualities directly related to certain types of musical activity, although he himself recognized this as only “an introduction to a full-blooded analysis of musical activity.” From our point of view, the study of the most general aspects of artistic talent should be not so much the conclusion as the basis of the study, since they do not consist of elementary abilities, but, on the contrary, subordinate, modify individual mental qualities and themselves give them the status of artistic abilities. Such a quality for all types of artistic and creative talent of a person is an aesthetic attitude to reality.

Masters of art from different times and peoples unanimously testify that such an attitude to life is an indispensable and main condition for the emergence of independent artistic ideas; Without it, the picture will not turn out, the poem will not be born. As M.M. spoke about this. Prishvin, “subjectively, I and the world are one, but objectively the created new form remains evidence of this,” i.e. work of art [12; 343]. Thanks to the aesthetic attitude, the artist’s life experience, similar, it would seem, to the experience of all other people, is transformed into the potential content of his works (and is not exhausted in other types of activity, in everyday behavior, in ordinary emotional reactions to events and impressions, etc.) .

Therefore, a developed aesthetic attitude to reality becomes an almost inexhaustible source of artistic content. It also has a motivating force: a person relentlessly strives to preserve, objectify, and share with other people a vision of a humanized world, which opens up through the direct experience of unity and kinship with his subject - and thereby express and affirm his own non-alienation from the surrounding reality. And for this it is necessary to create a sensually perceived image (pictorial or verbal, musical or plastic) adequate to the given content.

This gives a special character to all mental processes: it awakens and stimulates the work of the imagination, which acts as the ability to create an image that expresses the non-figurative content of aesthetic experience, thereby imagining it; gives selective focus to perception and memory; imparts a creative character to the special knowledge, skills and abilities that a person possesses, and encourages the development of new ones, since they are necessary for the implementation of plans, etc.

This understanding of the aesthetic attitude allows, from our point of view, to implement a personal approach in the study of artistic abilities and overcome the inevitable limitations that are associated with the idea of ​​them as a set of individual components, such as the proximity of these components; the disunity of “abilities as such” and the motivational aspects of the psyche, which extremely complicates the path from the study of abilities to their development in teaching practice; difficulties in developing the problem of creative abilities (the idea of ​​abilities only as individual qualities that meet the requirements of activity contradicts the personal nature of creativity, which generates and develops activity itself); the unconvincingness of attempts to distinguish abilities from abilities and skills, etc.

Let's touch on another serious problem. As you know, artistic abilities are traditionally classified as special, in contrast to general, which refers to general mental abilities. We see, however, that the concept of general artistic abilities is just as legitimate [9], the most important of which is the aesthetic attitude to reality, which represents, as it were, a single root of all types of artistic exploration of the world. In relation to it, more specialized abilities (literary, musical, etc.) act as its concretization in relation to individual areas of art, which display the world differently, work with different materials, require different sensory support, etc.

Problems associated with aesthetic attitude as the basis of artistic abilities are of interest not only from a research point of view, but also from a pedagogical point of view, including for special education. The main difficulties in the professional training of art workers are rooted in a misunderstanding of the role of the aesthetic attitude and in the inability to develop it. Because of this, the selection of applicants becomes short-sighted, since the opportunity to assess the potential of a beginning artist and his ability for independent creativity is lost. The learning process itself becomes undirected: it does not actualize and develop the student’s potential as a creative person. The result of such training too often becomes a failed artist who has mastered the necessary array of special skills, but has not acquired the most important thing - the ability to transform his own life, his unique life experience into artistic creativity.

A rich, developed aesthetic attitude to reality is the key to not only the uniqueness, but also the universal significance of what the artist creates, since in his creativity he expresses his attitude to the “only life” common to all, ... not exempt from non-aesthetic moments. In the absence or deficiency of this quality, an artist can easily fall into subjectivist arbitrariness, get lost in purely professional problems, and can lose a sense of responsibility for the impact his work has (which is quite typical for the art of modern times, but not for the history of art as a whole). We can say that the aesthetic attitude to the world is artistic in every person and universal in a professional artist.

Unfortunately, these questions, fundamental for the education and self-education of creative artists, are forgotten in special educational institutions. The exception is the pedagogical systems of some outstanding masters of art (see, for example, [10], [15]).

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH RESULTS AND PROSPECTS

The first attempts to study and purposefully develop an aesthetic attitude are, of course, exploratory and partial in nature, and do not cover the subject in all its complexity and completeness; nevertheless, they confirm a number of the main points made above and allow us to specify the tasks of further work.

These studies involved adults working creatively in various fields of art (painters, musicians, artists, director, architect). The results of this “reference” group confirmed the idea of ​​aesthetic attitude as an integral characteristic of a person, giving a special direction to various mental processes. They also showed that an aesthetic attitude to the world is characteristic of people gifted in various fields of art, and can be considered as a common element of different types of artistic and creative talent. Let's briefly talk about some of these studies.

One of them studied the features of generalization processes characteristic of representatives of the artistic group; It turned out that for an aesthetically developed person, the preferable, and sometimes the only acceptable basis for grouping various stimuli is not their belonging to one or another logical class, but the commonality or difference of the emotional-evaluative attitude that arises in connection with the perception of their specific sensory appearance [5 ].

It was shown that when perceiving and describing everyday objects for representatives of the artistic group, what comes to the fore is not the utilitarian function of this class of objects, not generalized knowledge about them, not objective recording of external features; they describe the external form of an object as an expression of a certain “character”, “mood”, and look for evidence of its “life collisions” in it.

Some features of the imagination of these people were also revealed, manifested in the ability to form a sensory image that expresses a certain attitude, assessment of what is depicted, and to attract adequate means for this (visual, verbal, plastic, musical, etc.). Tasks affecting the motivational sphere of the subjects showed that an aesthetically developed person is inclined to set himself the specifically artistic task of creating an emotionally expressive image, not caused by the requirements imposed by the experimental situation [6], [7].

Research conducted using the same methods with students of different ages showed that primary schoolchildren have favorable prerequisites for aesthetic, artistic and creative development and, in terms of their results, are closer to the adults of the artistic group than teenagers and especially than adults who are not related to artistic creativity. It can be assumed that elementary forms of an aesthetic attitude to the world are characteristic of many, and perhaps all children, but in the future these possibilities develop only in a few people who have connected their professional destiny with art, and sharply decline in most others. This appears to be actively promoted by the general orientation of school education. For example, the above-mentioned ability to generalize on an emotional-evaluative basis, attention to the specific sensory appearance of a single object in school education does not appear at all as a favorable prerequisite for aesthetic education, but as an age-related weakness of logical thinking, which can only interfere with the assimilation of educational material. On the other hand, the experience of experimental teaching of children both in creative studios and in the classroom of a general education school ([3], [4], [8], [11]) allows us to believe that the purposeful development of an aesthetic attitude in children is feasible and that it really is the driving force. the power of developing the child’s artistic and creative abilities[6]. This work made it possible to identify the main psychological and pedagogical conditions for the development of children’s aesthetic attitude and creative abilities: the child’s involvement, at an age-appropriate level, in solving full-fledged creative problems, i.e. to the aesthetic transformation of his own life experience, thanks to which he discovers in himself the potential ability of an aesthetic attitude towards the environment; parallel work on artistic perception, which is constructed as a “dialogue” mediated by the work with its author, is based on the author’s experience of the children themselves and educates readers, viewers, listeners capable of aesthetic self-education in the process of independent communication with art; the use of favorable age-related prerequisites: a tendency to animate the environment, emotional responsiveness to sensory impressions, rich “pre-aesthetic” (A.N. Leontiev) experience in role-playing games, their transformation into primary forms of artistic creativity; the dialogical nature of communication between the teacher and children and between children.

Of course, all of the above should be considered as a first approximation to the study of psychological problems of aesthetic education and artistic and creative development of children, which allows us to outline many tasks for further research. Here are just a few of them, most closely related to the key problem of the aesthetic attitude to reality.

An in-depth study of the personality traits of a person with a developed aesthetic attitude to the world; studying age-related prerequisites and searching for optimal ways of its development in schoolchildren of different ages, as well as in preschoolers; the study of the conditions under which this universal human property - aesthetic attitude - begins to act primarily as the basis of special artistic abilities and determine the professional fate of a person (the question borders on the problem of individual differences in artistic and creative talent); studying the aesthetic attitude to the world as a unity of abilities and motivation for artistic creativity; a specific study of the interaction of general and special aspects of talent for different types of art; the problem of harmonizing the mental development of schoolchildren while enhancing the emotional and aesthetic aspects of learning and many others.

A group of research tasks with a clear practical orientation is also outlined. The main ones are: development of indicators of general aesthetic and artistic and creative development; unified psychological and pedagogical principles of teaching artistic disciplines; special courses and programs for training and retraining of teachers, as well as psychological justification, development and experimental testing of a propaedeutic course of general aesthetic development for younger schoolchildren.

Let's look at the last question in more detail. Since the aesthetic attitude to the world is the unified basis for all types of artistic exploration of the world, it is necessary to begin training not with historically isolated types of art with their specific technique and language, but with an undifferentiated introductory course specifically aimed at developing an aesthetic attitude in children 6-7 years old to the world. We emphasize that this has nothing to do with combining individual elements of several artistic disciplines within one lesson. In these lessons, the child, in the form of creative games that develop into primary forms of artistic creativity, with the free use of material and means of different types of art, will master, experience, and realize that special participation in the phenomena of life that gives rise to all types of artistic creativity. With this approach, a single foundation for the artistic cycle is initially laid: both in the teaching methodology and in the consciousness of the child himself, different arts turn out to be “trunks from the same root” - a special attitude to life. Let us note in passing that with existing teaching methods, as special surveys show, these disciplines are not perceived by children as a single cycle.

The child will be immediately introduced to the most general forms of artistic exploration of the world and thanks to this will be able to navigate all types of art, including those that are not included in current school curricula, but play a large role in shaping the inner world of a modern young person. And finally, starting not with special details, but with the development of primary forms of aesthetic attitude to the world, we immediately bring a universal spiritual and moral basis to the teaching of the artistic cycle, defining it as the area of ​​personality formation. The artistic cycle will become an example in the sense that the assimilation of its content will directly act for the child as a process of self-knowledge: the disclosure of his essential powers, the achievement of a new level of self-awareness and self-awareness in the world around him. And a gradual restructuring of the entire content of education on similar grounds will lead to the fact that there will be no alienated knowledge and, learning something about the world and its laws, a growing person will discover something in himself, learn his capabilities, comprehend his place in nature, history, the Universe; the learning process will be inseparable from the process of personality formation. Of course, such a transformation of the school as a whole will require enormous work and a lot of time. But the first steps towards this goal can be taken now, in the field of aesthetic education and artistic and creative development of children.

1. Arsenyev A.S. Natural science and humanitarian knowledge in the pedagogical process // Pedagogy of art and school. M., 1982. S. 22-46.
2. Bakhtin M.M. Aesthetics of verbal creativity. M., 1979. 421 p.
3. Kudina G.N., Melik-Pashaev A.A., Novlyanskaya Z.N. How to develop artistic perception in schoolchildren? M., 1988. 79 p.
4. Kudina G.N., Novlyanskaya Z.N. Children's creativity and development of literary abilities // Sov. pedagogy. 1987. No. 2. P. 43-46.
5. Melik-Pashaev A.A. On the issue of using the “grouping” technique for studying artistic development // New. research in psychology. 1986. No. 1. P. 44–48.
6. Melik-Pashaev A.A. At the springs of creativity (in Spanish). M., 1987. 326 p.
7. Melik-Pashaev A.A., Novlyanskaya Z.N. Formation of an aesthetic position as a condition for the development of children’s creative abilities // New. research in psychology. 1981. No. 2. P.49 - 53; 1982. No. 1. P. 55–60.
8. Melik-Pashaev A.A., Novlyanskaya Z.N. Steps to creativity. M., 1987. 126 p.
9. Melik-Pashaev A.A., Novlyanskaya Z.N. On the problem of general and special in human artistic talent // Art history and psychology of artistic creativity / Responsible. ed. AND I. Zis, M.G. Yaroshevsky. M.: Nauka, 1988. pp. 307-320.
10. Neuhaus G.G. About the art of piano playing. M., 1982. 298 p.
11. Novlyanskaya Z.N. “Poems are my continuation and beginning...” M., 1982. No. 8. 92 p.
12. Prishvin M.M. Notes on creativity. Context. 1974. M., 1975. P. 313-359.
13. Rubinshtein S.L. Problems of general psychology. M., 1976. 415 p.
14. Teplov B.M. Favorite works: In 2 vols. T. 1. M., 1985. 328 p.
15. Chekhov M.A. Literary heritage: In 2 vols. M., 1986. 457 pp.; 557 pp.

1 The article was written based on a report at a meeting of the Bureau of the Department of Psychology and Developmental Physiology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR on October 24. 1988 [2] For reasons unrelated to art and artistic development, literature is an exception. This subject is listed among the main ones, but it is taught using inadequate methods and remains fruitless for the artistic, creative and general aesthetic development of children. Moreover, its very inclusion among the artistic disciplines sometimes causes sincere bewilderment even among educators. [3] Wed. with M.M. Bakhtin: “My aesthetic activity is not in the special activity of the artist-author, but in a single life, undifferentiated and not freed from non-aesthetic moments, syncretically concealing within itself, as it were, the embryo of a creative plastic image” [2; 38-39]. [4] The important question of the possibility of aesthetic education by means of other subjects requires serious study, without which an appeal to the aesthetic effects of chemical reactions, mathematical formulas, movements of a trained body, etc. lead to theoretical and practical confusion. 5 See about this, in particular, [1]. [6] In asserting this, we also take into account the experience of advanced art pedagogy: teaching children fine arts under the program of the Union of Artists and the Research Institute of Art, the work of the Dnepropetrovsk cartoon studio “Vesnyanka”, etc.

The article was published in the journal “Questions of Psychology” Received by the editors on October 20, 1988.

Objectives of aesthetic education

The ability to notice what surrounds people, be it a twig, a bug, the sound of a waterfall or the singing of a bird, is the basis for the education of aesthetic feelings, which is not limited to art. If a child loves nature, the harmony of which is incomparable to that created by man, he will be able to enjoy a piece of music or painting.

Aesthetic education also manifests itself in everyday life. A child’s personality is influenced by the house in which he lives, the way his parents eat, dress, and communicate. Competent speech, a beautifully set table, neatly dressed and combed parents - all these are components of upbringing, which is not a simple sum of knowledge. The ability to draw and play the violin is also important, but the main thing is to see the harmony around and participate in its creation.

The goal of developing a personal culture is to cultivate in it:

• perception, the ability to find beauty in natural phenomena, art, relationships;
• feelings that give an emotional assessment of everything that surrounds;
• needs, the need for aesthetic experiences, contemplation and analysis of beauty, participation in its creation;
• tastes, the ability to analyze everything that surrounds for compliance with aesthetic standards;
• ideals, ideas about the beauty of nature, the beautiful in man, art.

Methods of experiencing beauty

Personal example is recognized as the most effective method of aesthetic education. Educators and parents lay the foundation and pass on to their students the most important criteria of artistic consciousness. Along with personal example, which includes a style of behavior, a manner of communication, a set of moral qualities, and appearance, the methods include:

• conversations;
• lessons and additional classes in clubs, studios;
• participation in excursions;
• trips to theaters, museums, exhibitions, work at festivals and competitions, matinees, evenings;
• creative homework.

Domestic and foreign systems of music education

Artistic and aesthetic education of preschool children

Already at preschool age, children are able to respond to the beautiful in their surroundings, music, poetry, objects of fine art, nature, and they themselves strive to draw, sculpt, sing, dance, and write poetry. Adults and children are constantly exposed to artistic and aesthetic phenomena. In the sphere of spiritual life, everyday work, communication with art and nature, in everyday life, in interpersonal communication - everywhere the beautiful and the ugly, the tragic and the comic play a significant role. Beauty brings pleasure and pleasure, stimulates work activity, and makes meeting people pleasant. The ugly is repulsive. The tragic teaches empathy. Comic helps to fight shortcomings. Aesthetic education is a purposeful, systematic process of influencing a child’s personality in order to develop his ability to see the beauty of the surrounding world, art and create it. It starts from the first years of children's lives.

Aesthetic education is a very broad concept. It includes the education of an aesthetic attitude towards nature, work, social life, everyday life, and art. However, the knowledge of art is so multifaceted and unique that it stands out from the general system of aesthetic education as a special part of it. Raising children through art is the subject of artistic education.

In turn, aesthetic education is part of the comprehensive communist education of children. Its connection with moral education is especially close. Beauty is perceived by a child as a unity of form and content. Form is expressed in a combination of sounds, colors, lines. However, perception becomes aesthetic only when it is emotionally colored and associated with a certain attitude towards it.

Aesthetic perception is inextricably linked with feelings and experiences. A feature of aesthetic feelings is disinterested joy, a bright emotional excitement that arises from meeting the beautiful.

Acquaintance with beauty in life and art not only educates the child’s mind and feelings, but also contributes to the development of imagination and fantasy. Aesthetic education is the most important aspect of raising a child. It contributes to the enrichment of sensory experience, the emotional sphere of the individual, affects the knowledge of the moral side of reality, increases cognitive activity, and even affects physical development. The result of aesthetic education is aesthetic development. The formation of children’s aesthetic attitude to the world around them is influenced by the development of the ability to see and feel beauty in nature, actions, art, and to understand beauty. You should also cultivate artistic taste, the need for knowledge of beauty. The tasks of preschool education are also aimed at developing artistic skills in the field of various arts: teaching children to draw, sculpt, design, sing, move to music, and develop verbal creativity. Aesthetic education of children is carried out by familiarizing children with the aesthetics of everyday life, with the beauty in work, in nature, social phenomena, and the means of art. Teaching a child to feel and understand the beauty of life is a big and difficult task that requires long-term work by adults. Certain conditions are necessary for the aesthetic education of children. First of all, this is the environment in which he lives and develops. These are the things around him, the appearance of people, and the beautiful relationships between people. But it is not enough for children to see the beauty around them in its various manifestations, but it is also worth drawing their attention to this beauty.

“Artistic education is a process of purposeful influence by means of art on a person, thanks to which those educated develop artistic feelings and taste, love for art, the ability to understand it, enjoy it and the ability to create in art if possible” [V. N. Shatskaya, 1987, 35]. Aesthetic education is much broader; it affects both artistic creativity and the aesthetics of everyday life, behavior, work, and relationships. Aesthetic education shapes a person with all aesthetically significant objects and phenomena, including art as its most powerful means. Aesthetic education, using artistic education for its purposes, develops a person mainly not for art, but for his active aesthetic life.

In the book “The Child in the World of Creativity”, edited by N. Varkka, one can find the following formulation: “Pedagogy defines the artistic and aesthetic education of preschool children as a purposeful process of forming a creatively active personality of a child, capable of perceiving and appreciating the beauty in life and art” [N. Varkki, 2003, 53].

So, artistic and aesthetic education has an active and creative orientation, which should not be limited only to a contemplative task, it should also form the ability to create beauty in art and life. Communicating with the aesthetic phenomena of life and art, the child, one way or another, develops aesthetically and artistically. But at the same time, the child is not aware of the aesthetic essence of objects, and development is often determined by the desire for entertainment, and without outside intervention the child may develop incorrect ideas about life, values, and ideals.

The main thing is to educate and develop such qualities, such abilities that will allow the individual not only to achieve success in any activity, but also to be the creator of aesthetic values, to enjoy them and the beauty of the surrounding reality. In addition to the formation of children’s artistic and aesthetic attitude to reality and art, artistic and aesthetic education simultaneously contributes to their comprehensive development. It contributes to the formation of a person’s morality, expands his knowledge about the world, society and nature. A variety of creative activities for children contribute to the development of their thinking and imagination, will, perseverance, organization, and discipline.

Most researchers distinguish the following categories: aesthetic perception, aesthetic taste, aesthetic ideal, aesthetic assessment. D. B. Likhachev also distinguishes aesthetic feeling, aesthetic need and aesthetic judgment [D. B. Likhachev, 1996, 42]. We mentioned categories such as aesthetic appreciation, judgment, and experience earlier. Along with them, the most important element of aesthetic consciousness is aesthetic perception.

Perception is the initial stage of communication with the art and beauty of reality. All subsequent aesthetic experiences and the formation of artistic and aesthetic ideals and tastes depend on its completeness, brightness, and depth. D. B. Likhachev characterizes aesthetic perception as: “a person’s ability to isolate processes, properties, qualities that awaken aesthetic feelings in the phenomena of reality and art” [D. B. Likhachev, 1996, 45]. This is the only way to fully master an aesthetic phenomenon, its content and form. This requires the child to develop the ability to finely distinguish shape, color, evaluate composition, ear for music, distinguish tonality, shades of sound and other features of the emotional and sensory sphere. The development of a culture of perception is the beginning of an artistic and aesthetic attitude towards the world.

Aesthetic phenomena of reality and art, deeply perceived by people, are capable of generating a rich emotional response. The emotional response, according to D. B. Likhachev, is the basis of artistic and aesthetic feeling. It is “a socially determined subjective emotional experience, born of a person’s evaluative attitude towards an aesthetic phenomenon or object” [D. B. Likhachev, 1996, 53]. Depending on the content and brightness, aesthetic phenomena can arouse in a person feelings of spiritual pleasure or disgust, sublime experiences or horror, fear or laughter. D. B. Likhachev notes that by experiencing such emotions repeatedly, an aesthetic need is formed in a person, which is “a persistent need to communicate with artistic and aesthetic values ​​that evoke deep emotions” [D. B. Likhachev, 1996, 48].

Another category of artistic and aesthetic education is complex socio-psychological education - aesthetic taste. Yu. B. Borev defines it as “a relatively stable personality property, which enshrines norms and preferences that serve as a personal criterion for the aesthetic assessment of objects or phenomena” [Yu. B. Borev, 1988, 92]. D. B. Nemensky defines aesthetic taste as “immunity to artistic surrogates” and “thirst for communication with genuine art.” But we are more impressed by the definition given by E. O. Gusev. “Aesthetic taste is the ability to directly, by impression, without much analysis, feel and distinguish what is truly beautiful, the true aesthetic merits of natural phenomena, social life and art” [E. O. Gusev, 1978, 37].

Aesthetic taste is formed in a person over many years, during the period of personality formation. At preschool age there is no need to talk about it. However, this in no way means that aesthetic tastes should not be cultivated in preschool age. On the contrary, aesthetic information in childhood serves as the basis for a person’s future taste. The child has the opportunity to systematically become acquainted with the phenomena of art. It is not difficult for the teacher to focus the child’s attention on the aesthetic qualities of the phenomena of life and art. Thus, the child gradually develops a set of ideas that characterize his personal preferences and sympathies.

The entire system of artistic and aesthetic education is aimed at the overall development of the child, both aesthetically and artistically, as well as spiritually, morally and intellectually. This is achieved by solving the following tasks: the child mastering the knowledge of artistic and aesthetic culture, developing the ability for artistic and aesthetic creativity and the development of aesthetic psychological qualities of a person, which are expressed by aesthetic perception, feeling, evaluation, taste and other mental categories of aesthetic education.

Literature:

1. Azarov Yu. P. The art of education. M.: Education, 1985.-127p.

2. Alekseev P. G. Methodological principles of designing educational systems / P. G. Alekseev // Design in education: Problems, searches, solutions. - M.: Vlados, 1994.-98 p.

3. Alekseeva M. M., Yashina V. I. Speech development of a preschooler. M., 1998.-242 p.

4. Amonashvili Sh. A. Reflections on humane pedagogy. M., 1996

5. Varkki N. A child in the world of creativity: Creative and aesthetic education of preschool children / N. Varkki // Preschool education. - 2003. - No. 6. - P.57–67.

6. Borev Yu. B. Aesthetics. M.: Publishing house of political literature, 1988.-178 p.

7. Borev Yu. B. Aesthetics. M.: Rus-Olympus: AST: Astrel, 2005.-829 p.

8. Vygotsky L. S. Selected psychological studies. M., 1980.-384 p.

9. Vygotsky L. S. On the issue of multilingualism in childhood // Reader on age and pedagogical psychology. M., 1996.

10. Vygotsky L. S. Thinking and speech / Ed. G. N. Shelogurova. M.: Labyrinth, 1996.

11. Vygotsky L. S. Imagination and creativity in childhood. - M.: Pedagogy, 1991.

12. Grigorovich L. A. Development of creative imagination. - M., 1997.-175 p.

13. Gusev E. O. Creative process and artistic perception. L., 1978.-94p.

14. Likhachev B. T. Methodological foundations of pedagogy / B. T. Likhachev. - Samara: Bakhrakh, 1998.

15. Likhachev D. B. Theory of aesthetic education of schoolchildren.

16. Ushinsky K. D. Selected pedagogical works. M., 1974.-p.287

17. Fokina T. Program for the artistic and aesthetic development of preschoolers / T. Fokina // Preschool education. - 1999.-No. 1.-p.35–38.

18. Artistic creativity and the child / Ed. N. A. Vetlugina. - M.: Pedagogy, 1992.

19. Shatskaya V.N. General issues of aesthetic education at school, 1987.-184p.

20. Aesthetic education in kindergarten: A manual for kindergarten teachers / Ed. N. A. Vetlugina. - M.: Education, 1995.

Means and methods of aesthetic development

The basis of a child’s cognitive motivation, his ethical attitudes, and attitude towards others and his homeland lies in his active practice. The productivity of aesthetic education depends on the degree of connection with objective activity. The development of personality occurs the more successfully the earlier it is included in creativity.

Play is the most productive way to develop creative potential. Through play activities, the child is involved in communication, masters elements of culture, and accumulates aesthetic impressions. During the game, preparation takes place to enter the world of art, to turn it into a means of understanding everything that surrounds.

Speech development classes form an understanding of the diversity of languages ​​and cultures of the native country, awaken a love of reading, and provide communication skills. A special place is occupied by trips to the theater and expressive reading clubs.

Classes on the surrounding world instill love for nature and patriotism. A special role is assigned to the school museum; the formation of the traditions of the educational institution requires attention.

Extracurricular activities to study the culture of the peoples of Russia , holding events and holidays together with parents, participating in folk games and theatrical performances, rituals provide an opportunity to comprehensively solve the problem of aesthetic development of children and at the same time their spiritual and moral education.

Art lesson planning becomes especially important. They continue organically during extracurricular activities. The children successfully apply the knowledge acquired in art lessons in real creative practice in classes in drama clubs and fine arts groups.

Closely connected with this educational area are trips to theaters and cinema, excursion trips, and communication with cultural and artistic figures.

note

The life experience of children at each stage of development is quite small. They will not soon be able to distinguish aesthetic phenomena from the general mass. Introducing creativity fosters a child’s aesthetic needs, the ability to enjoy art, awakens interest in it, and develops aesthetic taste.

Artistic and aesthetic education of schoolchildren as the basis for the creative development of students

Artistic and aesthetic education of schoolchildren as the basis for the creative development of students

Morokova T.D., Deputy Director for Water Resources Management, MAOU “Secondary School No. 40”, Perm

School should not bring a sharp change in the lives of children. The school’s task, based on the common ground between the preschool and primary school stages of a child’s development, is to preserve, enrich and develop the potential that is laid in kindergarten. The process of humanization and humanization of education, the increasing role of the spiritual factor in the development of the individual, pushes aesthetic education to new positions in society.

Creativity and creative activity determine the value of a person, therefore the formation of a creative personality today acquires not only theoretical, but also practical meaning.

The effectiveness of a school is currently determined by the extent to which the educational process ensures the development of the creative abilities of each student, forms a creative personality and prepares her for full-fledged cognitive and social work activities.

The current system of training and education of children in kindergarten and primary school ensures continuity in the development of the artistic and aesthetic foundations of the individual.

We are convinced that art develops in a child abilities that are equally necessary for artistic and scientific knowledge. Therefore, along with general education, an artistic and aesthetic direction was defined.

The main goal of art classes in elementary school is to enrich the sensory, emotional, value, and aesthetic experience of children; development of artistic and imaginative thinking, abilities for artistic creativity. In accordance with this, 3 leading content lines are distinguished:

• development of an aesthetic attitude to the phenomena of surrounding life and art;
• enriching the child’s emotional world;
• development of creative perception of works of art.

In elementary school, students become acquainted with different types of art, a variety of genres, the originality and richness of the artistic traditions of the peoples of the world and their native artistic culture.
Children's creative experience expands in different types of art. Aesthetic activities at school

carried out in the following areas:

• fine art
• artistic speech
• musical
• theatrical and gaming
• choreographic
• cultural-mass

The widespread use of various types of aesthetic activities helps to awaken artistic interests and develop the artistic and creative abilities of schoolchildren.
The success of all various aesthetic activities depends on the extent to which students master various types of art and experience the needs and pleasures of artistic and creative activity. The school curriculum is adjusted for in-depth study of subjects of the artistic and aesthetic cycle, while the educational areas are consistent, and the maximum volume of the teaching load does not exceed the norm. Experience shows that the education, training and development of schoolchildren is carried out most successfully if it covers all types of children’s communication with art. Therefore, the curriculum of extracurricular activities includes the following artistic and aesthetic disciplines: solfeggio, choral singing, ethics, music-making, fine arts, theater.

First-level classes work according to this curriculum, which gives each child the opportunity to reveal their talent and potential. Making art accessible to absolutely every child is the main thesis that underlies all educational activities.

To provide a variable part of the educational content, programs approved by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, as well as proprietary programs, are used, namely:

• Music-making program for 1st grade. (author-developer G.V. Khanzhina).
• “Ethics lessons in elementary school” (author-developer Bondarenko V.A.).

To carry out experimental work, programs are used in solfeggio (author L.V. Glukhov), choral singing (author P.P. Ostanin), “musical instrument” - author S.G. Moshkarov.
The material and technical support of the programs used fully complies with the regulatory framework. Significant didactic material has been prepared (including slides, audio tapes, video tapes, etc.)

We understand that schooling must be conducted on an intensive, integrative basis. It is precisely this organization of the content side of learning that leads to a reduction in psychological stress and contributes to the formation of a special type of thinking. Therefore, teachers of the school laboratory for artistic and aesthetic education and upbringing have developed integrated courses and educational blocks that are successfully introduced into the educational process:

• “literature – music – painting”;
• “natural history – music – painting”;
• “mathematics - solfeggio”;
• “mathematics and design”;
• "fine arts and artistic work."

In the field of music education and development, schoolchildren gain experience in an emotionally holistic relationship to musical works, become familiar with the genres and forms of music, its intonation basis, expressive means, and the main features of the music of their native country and other peoples of the world.
Forms of introducing students to music include choral and vocal singing, listening to musical works by composers, expressing their impressions in words, drawings, in artistic movement, and composing their own melodies. In the process of studying the laws of musical art, teachers also use such figurative and playful techniques as:

• plastic intonation;
• musical and rhythmic movements;
• free conducting;
• playing basic musical instruments;
• staging of songs and musical compositions;
• appropriate techniques for working on articulation, diction, breathing, facial expressions.

These various forms of activity in the lessons make it possible to make the process of mastering music interesting and meaningful, which eliminates motor passivity and overload of children in the initial period of schooling.
MUSIC is the energy field of the personality. Understanding music means understanding another person, feeling his mood and internal state. Music creates a certain emotional mood that calls for reflection. Children learn to express their feelings and experiences, and realize the connection between music and life. Students' singing skills are more thoroughly developed in choral singing lessons. In the course of studying choral art, schoolchildren develop an ear for music, memory, voice, develop emotional responsiveness to art, form artistic views and ideas, and develop aesthetic taste.

Studying solfeggio is the shortest and most effective way to develop intonation hearing, modal thinking, and pitch concepts. Solfeggio classes give positive results, because... The child’s mental and motor areas of activity develop simultaneously and harmoniously.

The program pays special attention to playing musical instruments. In 1st grade, children participate in collective music playing. From the second grade onwards, students can learn to play a musical instrument individually.

No less important in the system of artistic and aesthetic education is the development of children's visual creativity. Visual activity, due to its specificity, provides great opportunities for the aesthetic development of the individual. The curriculum of B. M. Nemensky “Fine arts and artistic work” meets the ideas of continuity in art education and the development of children. It is built on the basis of impressions acquired in preschool age and acquired skills.

Fine art develops visual memory, observation, spatial imagination, fine motor skills of the fingers, eye, perseverance, sense of rhythm and harmony, teaches children to see the beauty of the world around them and achieve improvement in their work.

Fine arts lessons in primary school are taught by an experienced teacher of the highest category, a diploma winner of the regional competition “Teacher of the Year”, master artist V.N. Tarasova. Her lessons are permeated with a special emotional atmosphere of passion. It is achieved with the help of the teacher’s living words, interesting dialogues with students, vivid visual images, poetic text, and game situations.

Children's imagination knows no bounds: children paint with watercolors, gouache, wax crayons, coals, pencils, sculpt, design, applique, embroidery, and use natural materials. With what interest do students work in these lessons? They act like good wizards, skillfully revealing the richness and depth of the artistic image using various means of artistic expression. Students are especially captivated by the process of performing collective compositions (“My City”, “Autumn Fantasy”, “Birds Are Flying”, “Aquarium”). In conditions of collective work, each child can be convinced of the reality of the results of his creative work and correlate them with the results of the creative efforts of the entire team. When analyzing children's compositions, you can see how thematic drawing, with the help of observations, travel, and excursions of children, replenishes their stock of knowledge about life, enriches their memory, fosters love for their native nature, and gives rise to a sense of pride for their native land.

The main principle of visual activity is the development of creative individuality. By developing creative thinking, the teacher strives to avoid any patterns and patterns in color, form and in the ability, like an artist, to perceive the world around him in his own way. Children's drawings always attract attention with their spontaneity, originality, richness, and brightness of color. The role of the teacher is not to violate the originality of the child’s vision, to lead children to a truthful depiction of life.

Enthusiastic young artists study in the art studio “Creativity” in a specially equipped art room. Exhibitions of drawings and traditional creative competitions serve as incentives for the further development of children's creativity. The best works of young artists are awarded with diplomas and certificates.

In the past academic year, students' competitive works took part in the city exhibition. A special place in the system of artistic and aesthetic education is given to the theatrical and gaming activities of schoolchildren. THEATER is a synthetic art form. Its participants are immersed in the world of literature, music, visual and other arts. THEATER is a collective creativity. The children learn fruitful interaction, master the skills of cooperation and interpersonal communication.

The main language of theater arts is action, dialogue and play, which makes this lesson very relatable to children. An important task of theater lessons is to maximize the creative potential of children, to help students in the process of self-knowledge and self-development. The cognitive and moral role of theatrical education is enormous, because theatrical activity develops imagination, observation, attention, memory, associative thinking, a culture of feelings, plasticity and speech. Through group games. The exercises work on the child’s emotionality, musical sensitivity, rhythm, coordination of movements, and artistry.

From the 1st grade, targeted work with children on ethical education is carried out, covering the educational and extracurricular activities of schoolchildren. The ethical course “Ethics” is focused on involving students in ethical dialogue, communication and interaction. In these unusual lessons of kindness and humanity, the child learns the importance and beauty of human relationships, determines his moral position, and practices moral actions.

Through various methodological forms: story, dialogue, game, experiment, analysis and playing out life situations, the process of learning the ethical standards of an educated person is carried out. The lessons are conducted in a fun way, emotional, full of examples and specific facts. In the game, children’s behavior is sociologized, the foundation of morality is formed, and the conditions for the aesthetic and spiritual development of the individual

.

One of the links in a unified artistic and aesthetic direction in the system of additional education for students is the school choreographic group “Gorodok”. His educational and concert activities are subordinated to the tasks of aesthetic development of students.

The basis of training is training in class and folk dance. Mastering them allows you to successfully master many genres, styles, and trends in the future. In parallel with the classics, the children study folk stage dance. It is close to children with its specificity, variety of rhythms, movements, and character.

Dance lessons form posture, develop plastic movements, and artistic taste.

Traditionally, choreographic performances are included in the program of holidays, concerts, and children's creativity festivals held at school. The main aspiration of the teachers of the artistic group is not limited to the tasks of mastering only choreographic art, but is associated with the tasks of the spiritual and physical development of children who comprehend the beauty of the surrounding reality through the art of dance and music.

Extracurricular activities of students are organized through individual forms and the work of various clubs, circles, sections and other associations of the artistic and aesthetic cycle. Among them: the choreographic ensemble "Gorodok", a drama club, an accordion ensemble, an ensemble of domrists, an ensemble of guitarists, an art song club, a pop guitar club, an art studio "Creativity", junior and senior choirs, and a boys' choir.

The school has created such a variety of activities that allows each student to do what they love. Carrying out aesthetic and educational functions, cultural events are held in primary schools: traditional holidays, themed concerts, competitions, shows, quizzes, performances, exhibitions of children's creativity. Of course, the degree of artistic success of participants in such events varies, but they are united by mass participation, the opportunity to become familiar with the world of beauty, as well as the opportunity to reveal the individual creative potential of the student.

The unity of classroom and extracurricular work contributes to the expansion and deepening of students’ knowledge and skills, the development of their cognitive interests, forms independence and creative activity, and gives all educational activities a purposeful, comprehensive character.

The high quality of musical, visual, theatrical, literary and choreographic training of schoolchildren has been repeatedly noted at regional and city competitions.

In one article it is impossible to reveal the diversity of the content of the aesthetic development of children. We tried to show the importance of aesthetic education, which does not consist in creating a perfect orchestra, choir, theater, painting, but in the formation of morally beautiful people, cultured, educated, who can not only understand and appreciate the beauty of life, but also are its active creators. Every child has an artistic side. And the teacher needs to see in this creative beginning two sides - social and moral - and stimulate their development at the same time. By developing creativity, the teacher opens the way for children to experience beauty, emotionally enriches children, and leads them to a deeper understanding of the world.

Thus, the system of educational work, built on the basis of the complex influence of the arts, contributes to the development of the child’s multifaceted creative abilities, fully shapes the need for communication with art and, due to its effectiveness, is one of the leading links in the continuous educational process.

Public health and aesthetic education

The current educational system is untenable. It is in the interests of the state to replace it with one that will allow each individuality to reveal itself to the fullest, will help children determine their passions in art, science, and choose their favorite craft.

Clubs and development groups should include no more than 5-7 people, starting from the age of 5. Being away from parties, the younger generation will develop in a cultural environment, learn to feel and think.

The thinking and speech of many modern children are undeveloped; they are not able to express their feelings and experiences. The little ones need to start with music and dancing, and learn to read poetry. Older children need classes in ballet, theater, and art studios, familiarity with rhetoric, chess, astronomy, and the study of biology, archeology, and anthropology.

Where does a creative society come from, competent mentors capable of raising a moral person with a broad humanitarian outlook? We need enthusiasts, armed not only with theory, with developed programs, and with clear ideas about the goals of aesthetic education. The process is long, but inevitable, otherwise society faces degeneration.

Just as one cannot force one to love, one cannot force one to understand beauty either. The Hermitage with the Russian Museum, art books should not be on the agenda every Sunday. Children can be “filled” with knowledge. But the goal of aesthetic education cannot be a set of knowledge. This concept presupposes, first of all, the ability to see and create beauty around oneself. 

What is aesthetic education?

Aesthetic education of preschoolers is most often understood as one of the areas of modern pedagogy, designed to develop in a person the ability to see and understand beauty, its role, value and significance in life. Artistic and aesthetic education begins from a very early age and continues throughout life, undergoing some changes (for example, changing goals, objectives, methods of organization, etc.).

Aesthetics is a fairly broad category, covering many aspects and aspects of human life.

Methods of aesthetic education are very diverse

Successful artistic and aesthetic education allows the child to develop successfully and harmoniously, improving artistic taste in literature, music, painting and other forms of art; culture of behavior, appearance, etc. Since aesthetics equally affects the concept of beauty in form and content, in the inner world of a person and his social life, the tasks of aesthetic education are large-scale and multifaceted. The child acquires the skills of perceiving beauty, evaluating it (in the early stages), and subsequently learns to create products that have one or another aesthetic value.

To form a concept of beauty in a child’s mind is the fundamental task of artistic and aesthetic education.

Moreover, it should be clarified that in this case the category of the beautiful should be somewhat distinguished from the beautiful. If the idea of ​​beauty changed over time and was used to characterize the form, then beauty affects the content and remains unchanged even after centuries. Beauty is a global category, which initially includes humanism, perfection, and spirituality.

All means of aesthetic education are available to children

Goals of art education

1. Formation of a complex aesthetic culture in a child.
2. The ability of preschoolers to notice various manifestations of beauty in the world around them.
3. The ability to give an emotional assessment of beauty.
4. Formation of the need for sensation, contemplation, and appreciation of beauty.
5. Formation of skills and needs for creating beauty.
6. The formation of artistic taste, manifested in the ability to compare and correlate phenomena and objects of the surrounding reality with accepted aesthetic ideals.
7. Having a clear idea of ​​beauty in all its manifestations, formed ideals.

Objectives of artistic education

When discussing the artistic education of a child, it is necessary to highlight both general goals and smaller but significant tasks:

1. Raising a comprehensively developed harmonious personality.
2. Developing the ability to see beauty and understand its value.
3. Developing the need to improve your creative abilities and skills.

The main tasks of aesthetic education

Means of artistic and aesthetic education

• Fine arts (drawing, modeling, applique).
• Dramaturgy (theater productions).
• Literature.
• Mass media (Television, Internet, newspapers, magazines).
• Music.
• Nature.

The development of artistic abilities is one of the methods of aesthetic education

Methods of aesthetic education

The most important methods of artistic and aesthetic education and development of preschool children:

1. Participation in group activities (studios, clubs, etc.).
2. Visiting preschool educational institutions.
3. Visiting thematic exhibitions and excursions.
4. Personal example.