Major policy changes continue to be made without adequate preliminary research or even recourse to con-ducted pertinent studies. programs have been successful in terms of implementation and continuity by dint of the institutional power and backing they conjure up in response to criticism. When research is finally conducted, research data can be easily used to justify tile time, effort, and emotional commitment ex-pended on what appears to be accomplished undisputed fact and reality. (Hamblen, 1988, p. 7) Art curriculum guides tend lei be among the most conservative art educational documents. The elements and principles of design that were first introduced into art education and that found their way into curriculum guides during the 1930s are stili the basis of most curriculum guides at bot h state and local levels .... The continued use of elements and principles draw attention away from the dozens of major features of art in which students should be educated. e.g., themes, subject matter, symbols, allegories, styles, expressive characteristics, societal contexts and ideas .... One of the major problems facing those who would reform art education in the U.S. is to break tile cycle of copying outmoded patterns of instruction. (Wilson, 1987, p. 8)