It is proposed to extensively strengthen and improve the aesthetic education in schools in the new era, and one of the goals is to improve college students’ aesthetic quality, which plays a vital role in top talent cultivation system. However, aesthetic education has not been paid enough attention to in most engineering colleges and universities. In this paper, we discuss the role of courses of reading classics in aesthetic education and the way to explore aesthetic elements in classics. It is proposed to integrate aesthetic education, moral education and humanistic education into the courses. At the same time, flexible and diverse teaching methods should be employed in reading classics so that both students’ aesthetic value and quality can be improved, promoting the orderly development of higher aesthetic education.