This study explored the meaning of \"beautiful school\" from an aesthetic
perspective. Generally beautiful school means to have abundant aesthetic
values and meanings within the contents and methods of curriculum, which
inevitably evokes the viewer to awe and to embark pleasant feelings.
Waldorf school and Reggio Emilia school were selected as the sites of
practicing aesthetic education and so thus, perceived as good examples of
beautiful school. In this study, aesthetics is used as a criteria to describe and
discuss the meaning and value of beauty embodied in those two schools.
From the traditional aesthetic perspective, this study particularly explored the
aesthetic value of the space in structure of schools and aesthetic meaning of
the time table at each school. From the trends of aesthetic education in
contemporary society, this study also discussed the knowledge of aesthetics
which is more likely concerned with the integrations and relations of the
cognitive mode in learning with the arts. Based on the discussion, this study
discussed the criteria of what defines the meaning of beautiful school, which
involve aesthetic perspective in the structure of space, time, and knowledge
embedded in schooling. Finally this study suggests to expand our typical
understanding of the meaning of beautiful school to the broader area
including aesthetic education and proposes a possibility of new way of school
reform from aesthetic perspectives.