Vjekoslav Ko？？evi？’s contribution to art education in Croatia

Sa？etak The art education movement announces resistance to the old, intellectualist Herbart pedagogy, its followers and formal degrees of teaching, requesting that education be approached in a more complex and diverse manner, the focus being on the child. Unlike mechanical learning, this provides freedom in education by using: school labs, libraries, museums, cinemas, theaters… in short – connecting school with life. Fervent followers of ideas behind the art education movement in Croatia included Vjekoslav Ko？？evi？ (1866-1920) and Ivan Toma？i？ (1886-1956). Ko？？evi？ initially presented his beliefs and support in an article titled Our Pedagogy in 1895 and later in his books Some Remarks on Rearing (1899) i School through Work or New Age Ideas of School System Reform (1912). Although Ko？？evi？ advocates French and Russian pedagogical accomplishments, he would choose the model used by this movement in Germany – he established the Croatian Society for the Advancement of Rearing (1904) and soon afterwards the Preporod (1905) magazine. Acting as secretary of the Society and publisher and editor of the magazine, he organized the first courses for the professional education and training of teachers (1909: on free drawing, on modeling in primary school), first theater plays (1905: a play at the Croatian National Theater for primary school students), exhibitions designed to be pedagogical (1905: Art in a Child's Life, 1908: Exhibition of Materials for the Study of Children)