Preventing Art Education from Becoming "a Handmaiden to the Social Studies".

When asked to comment and react to a series of articles written in Studies in Art Education, Elliot Eisner (1994) raised a number of questions about what postmodern enthusiasts were recommending for school art instruction. Specifically, he said, "Since the social and cultural agenda is so fundamental ... one wonders whether in the end art education will become little more than a handmaiden to the social studies" (190). Eisner went on to question whether art teachers are authorized and qualified to teach such material as well as to question the teachers' right "to ...