兒童的藝術教育是一個國家給它的公民極為重要的教育內容之一，正如Cornett(1999)所言：缺少藝術教育，根本上是切斷我們的歷史，切斷美，切斷其他文化並切斷各種表現形式。藝術教育的目標是培養有美學素養的社會公民。兒童的藝術教師不但是Feldman所謂的「特別的文化工作者」，培養兒童的創造力、鑑賞力和社會性，促進兒童心智和美感的發展，也是兒童人格的塑造者，其重要性不言可喻。因此，從事兒童藝術指導的教師的專業素質就非常重要。橡樹子藝術兒童教育機構從事兒童美術教育工作二十多年來，對兒童美術教育有深刻的專業反省，發展出自己的藝術教育哲學觀並實際體現於教育現場北興托兒所，本文以觀察、訪談和分析兒童作品的方式來做探討，期許拋磚引玉，共同深究兒童美術教育工作的理想和現實。 Many people in Taiwan today think of art mainly in terms of product. To them, children’s art education is all about developing skills and producing artwork, and has nothing to do with the development of human personality. This narrow view of children’s art education may ignore some of children’s important needs and be detrimental to the essence of children’s art education. As a children’s art educator, the administrator of Pei-Hsin Child Care Center believes that the Center’s mission is to provide opportunities for children to develop an appreciation of aesthetic values, to develop perceptual awareness, creative approaches to problem solving and a sense of personal awareness, to gain insight into cultural heritage, and to understand the relationship between art and environment. This article explored and exemplified the art education philosophy of Pei Hsin Child Care Center through the methods of observation, interviews and the analysis of children’s art works .
