This article proposes that beauty deserves to become an area of key interest to educationalists. The article begins by examining the reasons for the neglect of beauty in educational discourse before proposing how it might regain its influence as an educational concept by re-addressing the Platonic tradition and, in particular, by finding its articulation through the ordinary language of common experience. The song Jolly Coppers on Parade by Randy Newman is closely analyzed for the insights it provides into the nature and power of beauty as formative experience. The final section of the article, using soccer and drama as specific examples, considers how the concept of beauty is at the heart of the knowingly playful subjects in the curriculum and explains how this accounts not only for their appeal but also for their moral energies. In linking an education in beauty with an education in virtue, the study concludes with a brief consideration of the significance of this idea for teaches beyond the field of the arts. (Contains 47 notes.)