Acknowledgments

Eisner, Elliot W.

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Acknowledgments

Elliot W. Eisner

The Arts and the Creation of Mind

My interest in the visual arts began in elementary school. In fact the visual arts were a source of salvation for me at both the elementary and secondary school levels; I might not have got through without them. Upon graduating from my secondary school in Chicago, I enrolled as a student in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later in the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of...

Author

Elliot W. Eisner

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-31761

Acknowledgments

My interest in the visual arts began in elementary school. In fact the visual arts were a source of salvation for me at both the elementary and secondary school levels; I might not have got through without them. Upon graduating from my secondary school in Chicago, I enrolled as a student in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later in the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology. After completing a master’s degree at the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology, I taught art in the Chicago Public Schools and later at the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago. I have worked in the field of art education for over thirty-five years. Much of what I have to say about the arts in education has been informed by my experience as a painter and as a teacher of art.

In the preparation of this book, as anyone knows who has written one, debts are owed to many people. Some are owed to scholars whose work has influenced my thinking, including the values I embrace. Rudolf Arnheim, John Dewey, Nelson Goodman, and Susanne Langer, from the philosophic arena, are among those to whom I owe my deepest philosophical debts.

In the arts in education, among many others I am indebted to Manual Barkan, David Ecker, Edmund Feldman, Jerome Hausman, and Ellen Winner.

In the field of education I am indebted to Mike Atkin, Tom Barone, Larry Cuban, Stephen Dobbs, Howard Gardner, Maxine Greene, Philip Jackson, Ray McDermott, and Alan Peshkin.

Among the most important of those on whom I have depended and tested ideas, and with whom I have consulted, are my former students. Over many years, students come to shape your life in a multitude of ways. They challenge, cajole, deflate, and encourage. I am surely indebted to those I have had the privilege of teaching.

I also wish to thank Rebecca Chan and Mary Li, from Macao and Hong Kong, respectively, for their assistance in securing for me student work done in Rebecca’s class. She is an extraordinary teacher of art, and when I had the opportunity to obtain her students’ work, I took advantage of the opportunity with alacrity.

Several colleagues read and commented on the manuscript in draft form. It is better because of their advice. I want to thank Hilary Austen, Doug Boughton, Kerry Freedman, and Mary Ann Stankiewicz for their helpful advice.

I especially want to express my appreciation to Shifra Schonmann for her careful and helpful constructive review of the entire manuscript. Her assistance has been invaluable.

Finally, there are two others for whom my gratitude is boundless. The first is Tanya Chamberlain, my secretary, friend, and utility infielder at Stanford. This book simply would not have been written without her care and constructive assistance in finding just the right material for me, often before I knew I needed it. She provided what I needed in countless ways.

To my wife, Ellie, I express my deepest gratitude. She knew when to afford me space, when to allow me to work on the dining room table rather than in my study, and when to turn up the heat so that I maintained the focus I needed to write coherent prose. I owe her more than I can say.

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