What is Beauty?

What is beauty, and how do we find it? In this final episode of our series on the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, history teacher Sarah Shotwell walks us through the history, philosophy, definitions, and rich tradition behind the concept of Beauty, and explains why the search for it matters in the modern world (and in education!) Audience: 5th Grade to Adult Key Takeaways (2:58:) “We are pursuing Beauty here. With what we assign, the spaces we curate, and the books we read, we are not merely choosing what we like, what is trendy, or “cool.” We’re chasing beauty -- the things that move us and have moved generations of humans before us. This is why we read Homer and Gilgamesh and Emily Dickinson and Ancient Chinese poetry and Martin Luther King. It’s why we take our students camping in the woods and study natural sciences. It’s why we appreciate and make art. In our students, we want to cultivate a love of beauty. Ultimately, these moving experiences will come to shape their own tastes and loves over time.” For ideas on how to seek beauty every day on your own or with kids, visit our Down Home Blog at https://sloclassical.org/down-home/ Thank you again to photographer Lindsay Hamill and musical artist Margot Polo for your beautiful contributions to this video series!