This article is a brief sketch of a large and widely scattered subject. At present, it is a rather vaguely defined area of discussion and research, highly diversified in method and subject matter and broken up into many almost unconnected lines of thought. Yet many of the problems with which it deals are widely recognized as important for the understanding of human nature and civilization. They also have important bearings on educational policy. The present need is to draw some of these threads together as a step toward theoretical integration and cooperative research.

Modern psychology has deeply affected education in all fields. It had led us to realize that, in all branches of education, we are trying to direct the development of human beings. These are the basic materials with which we work; and the more we understand them, the more effectively we can control them for their own benefit and that of society.

The ideal of producing creative, original minds through public educaiton, or at least of helping in their development, is characteristic of modern educational philosophy in America.

The appreciation of art is commonly contrasted with its creation. To use the language of economics, the artist, or creator, is the producer of art; the appreciator is its consumer, or user.

Through studying art from a psychological and sociological standpoint, we hope to learn more about its genesis, nature and functions—what factors in the individual artist and in social conditions tend to produce various types of art, how various types of art affect various types of appreciator, what other uses they have in society, and how they can be further controlled for human welfare.

In spite of the nationalistic trend in world politics in recent decades, American education has progressed during the same years toward a more broadly international conception of 'Americanization' and of America, the 'melting-pot.' These concepts are now understood to mean, not the abandonment by new immigrant groups of their own traditions and the wholesale imposition of an Anglo-Saxon culture, but rather the contribution of these varied elements to the future civilization of America. We do not even insist that these contributions be 'melted' to such an extent that they lose all identity and national flavor through blending into a neutral cosmopolitanism.