Siegrun Buchheister, Germany PtC Germany, Groupleader Youth. dept. Significance of the Arts and of a creative activity for an ethical Upbringing When talking about art, this term is often associated with that of aesthetics. Aesthetics is known as a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty and art as well as of the harmonious lawfulness in nature. Even a few hundred years ago Plato, who down to the present day is considered to be one of the wisest and most influential thinkers of the Occident, talked about the value of beauty and its relevance for educational tasks.
Plato believed that beauty was something that had to be seen as a goal that people should be striving to attain through the right behaviour and spiritual knowledge since beauty would lead the way to a higher kind of knowledge. Furthermore, Plato held the view that everything beautiful is true and likewise everything ugly is wrong. He said that true beauty lies in the adoration of the highest. Therefore, the love for real beauty would lead the way to truth.
So it is most important that the term art may never be used in conjunction with something ugly or imperfect. Instead, art should be seen as the search for beauty and the attempt to express perfection in everything the human spirit may create. It is for that reason that any human effort to aspire perfection is an artful approach to improve the conditions of life. Especially the processes in nature are an act of the most artful creation.
Since for an ethical upbringing education plays a decisive role as well, it would be suggestive to have a closer look at the impact ethics has on children and adults.
When it comes to the subject of education, one is often tempted to only think of the instruction of children, but what is often overlooked and almost always under-estimated, is the broad area of self-education and especially the education of character. It may well be true that the education of children is the most decisive factor, but even an adult person needs further development with regard to their character as well as their profession.
Another important and urgent task of humanity is to educate its people. Only if a nation is aware of its destiny and its responsibility there will be the chance to avoid revolutions and upheavals, only then it would have a beneficial effect on all other nations and only then it would be possible to continue on the road to peace.
Now, the aim is to analyze how art affects the education of young people.
It goes without saying that it would surely be much more useful for young people to explore art than to exaggerate doing all kinds of sports or to watch dubious movies all the time. It is important to think about teenagers’ leisure-time activities because what would form young people’s spirit and character more positively is primarily the reading of good literature and practicing music or the art of painting, as well as the endeavor to gain widespread knowledge, no matter how old-fashioned that may sound. For this reason it is so deplorable that most of the youth waste their time with subjects of mere secondary importance, since they do not understand the great importance of our time.
It can be observed that young people’s heroes are no longer outstanding and exceptional personalities; instead they idolize sportsmen and film stars. However, when it comes to visiting a concert, going to theatre or any art event, listening to a scientific or even humanistic speech, none of these activities will attract nearly as many young people as a football match or any other sporting event would do.
Unfortunately, many of the young do not place high value on cultural facilities at all. The opposite is actually the case, as often those who are sensitive and able to see the incredible beauty in life are ridiculed, not taken seriously and treated as if they were sentimental and out of touch with reality.
Spiritual education as well as character education often is impeded, sometimes even violently, although it is scientifically proven that poverty, misery, terror and lack of freedom are mainly the result of ignorance, lack of knowledge and intellectual or spiritual poverty.
It is therefore that spiritual values have to be accepted as the general basis of existence. Developing personal qualities seriously should be part of any education. Humanity cannot live on bread alone. Instead, humanity urgently needs spiritual values and the freedom of self-development. It is the spiritual education which is of primary concern whereas physical training only is of secondary value.
The striving for perfection and beautification – and most importantly the forming of the human character – can be seen as the purpose of a human being’s life and it is the arts, as a universal value, that are very helpful in this endeavour. Art enables people to evoke a sense for profound beauty as it evokes awe in people. Every form has a certain character and the more it is ennobled, the more beautiful and pure it will become. In a spiritual sense, perfection means ennoblement of the character. Forming of the character simply means that a person is actively striving to develop more love, consideration for others, decency, generosity and also to transform negative character traits into positive ones.
To secure a meaningful life, there is no other way but to strive for spiritual ‘ennoblement’. Therefore, one needs to understand the meaning of life first of all. The main purpose is not the satisfaction of earthly or material needs and all its banalities, but a meaningful life, a life characterized by a vivid sense of community.
Finally, it is worth pointing out that art has a connecting and uniting character. Art is international. Striving towards the beautiful, art unites all revelations of the human spirit; and apart from its overall creativity, it is connecting people on an international and national basis. Due to its synthetic approach art is a universal public good and unlike the much praised sports it is truly bringing together humans from all over the world on a higher level.