The Way of Teaching Aesthetics and Its Importance in Maxine Greene's Work

[[abstract]]This thesis is dedicated to analyzing through Maxine Greene’s thought of Aesthetics and the methods she offers for teaching them. Maxine Greene believes that teaching aesthetics is a three-fold endeavor; first we should establish an environment in which students can come in touch with arts and with their own imagination; second, teachers of all subjects should be aware of the importance of Aesthetic Education and third, we must consider everyone in the multicultural society we live in as a special individual and treat him/her as such. My conclusion is that in order to establish aesthetics education in Taiwan, based on Maxine Greene’s theory, we must strive to fulfill the five following conditions: We must understand that in an educational system which emphasizes aesthetics education the student, the school and the community are equally important. Or, as Maxine Greene puts it these elements (students, schools, communities) should be part of the same sphere. We must work to release students’ imagination and encourage their creativity until the experience of aesthetics becomes part of their life-world. We should treat students with humanity; we must not view as human resources but as individuals with free will and choice. We must teach the art and literature of other cultures. That way students can learn to appreciate other cultures and to respect their differences. We must teach the value of freedom and democracy so that we can have a society in which people are communicating and cooperating in order to have a better future.