Last time I reminded myself of schoolbooks from a high school. The fact is that I never was a model pupil.
In general, I always possessed a minimalistic approach to learning. My aim for every test was to pass. Nothing more. Nevertheless, I was not as ambitious as other pupils do not mean that I did not like learning and reading. Last time I reminded myself of the fact that I genuinely loved to read history books. I loved to explore history through reading the schoolbooks during my primary and high school times. Moreover, I loved to watch the illustrations added to these books. I remember that, especially in history schoolbooks, there were a lot of reproductions of famous paintings.
Unfortunately, all these pictures were small. Their quality was not good. It was not possible to see the details of the artworks in such a book.
Today, many years after passing my high school (I finished it in 2004), I think it was regrettable that many young people did not have books with the illustrations in extraordinary quality. Of course, such things are not the most critical thing in history schoolbooks. It is the content that counts. Nevertheless, I believe that adding big, sharp, good enough to see details reproductions of artworks to such kind of books should be departmentally mandated.
By giving young people the possibility to interact with the most astonishing works that humans have ever made, we can increase the chances that students will start to be interested in art during their school time.
Why should we prevent it from doing it? Schoolbooks with art reproductions should be printed with taste, with the highest quality, and with the detailed artworks, so that pupils could analyze such kind of pictures during their learning time. For me, the publishing house Taschen sets trends regarding how to print books connected with art. Maybe if I could have such kinds of books (like Taschen’s) during my high school, I would interest in art much earlier. We will never find out about it.
Nevertheless, we cannot limit our children by not showing them the most significant artworks as humans. Society should do everything to allow young people to know art. Schoolbooks are one of the best ways to do it.
