Based on the current reality of educating students in universities, relying on the school's aesthetic education infiltration action to build a comprehensive framework for educating students, and constructing an ideological and political education system that integrates classroom, practice, campus, art, and faculty, is an inevitable choice for implementing the five educations simultaneously and cultivating well-rounded new talents of the times.

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In December 2023, the Ministry of Education issued a notice on the comprehensive implementation of the school aesthetic education infiltration action, clarifying infiltration as the goal and path of aesthetic education work, integrating aesthetic education into all aspects of education and teaching activities, and subtly demonstrating the effectiveness of educating people. For Hunan universities, continuously deepening ideological and political reform through the infiltration of aesthetic education is not only the responsibility of implementing the central deployment of aesthetic education work, but also the inherent requirement of cultivating Hunan's red soil, inheriting the spirit of practical application in Hunan, and cultivating young talents who are responsible for practical work.

There are still many practical shortcomings in the current education work in universities, such as insufficient innovative methods for ideological and political education, lack of aesthetic expression in classroom teaching, and the need to improve the ability of some college students to distinguish between beauty and ugliness and make value judgments. There is a general gap in the comprehensive aesthetic education literacy of frontline teachers, and multiple practical problems force us to open up the integration channel between aesthetic education infiltration and ideological and political education. Based on the current reality of educating students in universities, relying on the school's aesthetic education infiltration action to build a comprehensive framework for educating students, and constructing an ideological and political education system that integrates classroom, practice, campus, art, and faculty, is an inevitable choice for implementing the five educations simultaneously and cultivating well-rounded new talents of the times.

Therefore, it is necessary to deeply cultivate classroom teaching with the infiltration of aesthetic education, and build a solid ideological and political education main battlefield. The classroom is the core scene for implementing moral education and talent cultivation. Based on the deepening action of aesthetic education teaching reform, various disciplines should actively explore the hidden aesthetic resources and break down the barriers between ideological and political courses and general aesthetic education courses. Professional course teachers should integrate humanistic and aesthetic connotations into their knowledge teaching. In ideological and political classrooms, they should try to introduce aesthetic materials such as art, music, and literature, transform abstract ideal beliefs and value concepts into perceptible aesthetic experiences, and guide students to consciously shape positive moral qualities in the process of appreciating truth, goodness, and beauty. When ideological and political education courses go in the same direction, optimizing classroom narrative through aesthetic infiltration is conducive to breaking away from single theoretical preaching, allowing values to naturally permeate the entire teaching process, and continuously amplifying the effectiveness of classroom education.

Infusing aesthetic education to expand the practice of ideological and political education, and activating the human experience of ideological and political education. Relying on the integration of social aesthetic education resources, embedding aesthetic practice into the ideological and political education system, and breaking away from campus walls to broaden the boundaries of ideological and political education. For example, practical activities such as the "Three Visits to the Countryside" aesthetic education theme, visits to intangible cultural heritage, and research on red culture can be normalized. Social aesthetic education resources such as museums, red memorial halls, and folk art workshops can be integrated to allow students to step out of the classroom and appreciate the red spirit and excellent traditional Chinese cultural heritage through on-site aesthetic experiences. Different from programmatic practice activities, aesthetic education immersive social practice combines creative expression, humanistic influence, and value guidance, enhancing students' sense of participation and intellectual gain through silent aesthetic experiences, and realizing the transformation of practical education from "going through the motions" to "entering the heart".

Infusing aesthetic education to build campus culture and cultivate a fertile ground for ideological and political education. Schools should comprehensively create a campus environment that is always conducive to aesthetic education and everywhere has influence, making the campus space a silent classroom for ideological and political education. For example, red art works, traditional calligraphy and painting, and youth original aesthetic education works can be integrated into campus landscapes, corridors, and activity squares. Daily aesthetic education activities such as book sharing sessions, calligraphy and painting exhibitions, and aesthetic salons can be held regularly to create an overall cultural atmosphere that is oriented towards truth, goodness, and beauty. Campus culture subtly carries the function of value education, and if students are immersed in such campus culture for a long time, their ability to perceive, explore, and create beauty will continue to improve, and the cultural influence of ideological and political education will also continue to enhance.

Infusing aesthetic education to develop artistic and ideological education, enriching the expression of ideological and political education. Schools may rely on the popularization of art practice activities to promote artistic creation and stage performances as carriers of ideological and political education; Encourage teachers and students to engage in artistic creations such as stage plays, paintings, songs, short videos, etc. around themes such as socialist core values, red history, and the development of the times, and regularly hold art and ideological and political exhibitions. Compared to textual theory, intuitive and vivid works of art can vividly showcase national spirit and patriotism. Young students can immerse themselves in appreciating, creating, and interpreting works of art, and appreciate the historical heritage and value pursuits carried by the works. Through aesthetic enjoyment, they can cultivate noble moral sentiments, making ideological and political education more attractive and communicative.

Infusing aesthetic education to forge a team of educators and solidify the foundation of ideological and political education teachers. Promote the improvement of teachers' aesthetic education literacy, comprehensively fill the gaps in aesthetic ability of all sports personnel, and create a composite teacher team that combines ideological and political skills with aesthetic cultivation. Through specialized training in aesthetic education, interdisciplinary teaching and research, and art practice training, we aim to strengthen the aesthetic awareness and taste of teachers in various subjects, and guide them to rely on their own personality charm to convey truth, goodness, and beauty. Encourage ideological and political education teachers, art teachers, and professional course teachers to carry out interdisciplinary collaborative lesson preparation and jointly carry out aesthetic and ideological education activities, in order to enhance the artistic and emotional appeal of all education workers' teaching expression.

The integration of aesthetic education and the empowerment of ideological and political education in universities is a systematic project that is interrelated and progresses layer by layer. The five practical paths support each other and work together to address the practical difficulties in educating students in universities. From the perspective of student growth, continuous aesthetic education can enrich the spiritual world of young people, alleviate growth anxiety, and shape a sound and complete personality; From the perspective of school development, the integrated education model of morality and aesthetics can create a unique campus ideological and political brand, promoting the comprehensive reform and improvement of moral and aesthetic education in schools; From the perspective of teacher development, the infiltration of aesthetic education forces teachers to update their educational concepts and comprehensively enhance their comprehensive educational abilities. The three goals are organically unified, ultimately focusing on the fundamental task of cultivating morality and talent.

The infiltration of aesthetic education and ideological and political education in universities are highly compatible with the fundamental goal of cultivating morality and talents, and the two are interdependent, opening up a new path for the integration of reason and reason in the education work of universities in the new era. In the future, we should focus on the infiltration of aesthetic education in schools, break away from the limitations of previous research on the relationship between morality and beauty, and connect the five major educational scenarios of classroom, practice, campus, art, and teachers, forming a highly operational and comprehensive collaborative education implementation system, and helping to cultivate a new civilization that values morality and beauty.

The author is a teacher from Hunan Polytechnic Vocational and Technical College. This article is a phased achievement of the Hunan Provincial Social Science Fund project "Research on Empowering Ideological and Political Education in Colleges and Universities with Aesthetic Education Infiltration Action" (24YBA218)

Zhong Chengcheng Source: China Youth Daily

Version 05, August 17, 2026

(Author: Zhongqing Net)