Family education_ Chinese partChapter 1: Chinese ancient family educationChinese ancient family education was an important part in family life, and it was taken seriously by ancient people. With a long history, Chinese ancient family education had developed to a system which has deeply influenced Chinese people until now.The purposes of Chinese ancient family education:A. The most important goal of Chinese ancient family education is its political function of maintaining stability of society and consolidating as well as inheriting the social morality which was the cultural support of feudalism. In the Great Learning(《大学》), the doctrine of cultivating themselves, putting family in order, administering a country and making the world peace（修身齐家治国平天下）had connected family education with country administration, which was welcomed and wide spread by ancient governments, and it used to be the goal and ambition of uncounted ancient people. Besides, feudalism was built on the basic of small-scale peasant economy(小农经济). The stability of family is the key of small-scale peasant economy. Therefore, the concept of ancient family education aimed at uniting the family and keeping it stable.B. The second purpose of Chinese ancient family education is moral education. It was wide accepted that to cultivate a person with noble character was much more important than to cultivate a person with profound knowledge.The features of Chinese ancient family education:A. Top-down model. In ancient times, patriarch and elders were the center of a family. Family education was conducted by patriarch. It was a absolutely top-down model that children had no autonomous right.B. Filial-piety-centered ethics and morals education. The virtue of filial and piety is the core value in ancient society from imperial family to ordinary family.C. Prefer boys to girls. It was also a deep-rooted stereotype in the ancients. Boys had a superior social position than girls, and more opportunities in all aspects of life. Some familiar skills are descended to boys only.D. Pay great attention to children’s childhood education. The ancients believed that what person the children going to become can be seen in their childhood, so childhood education was quite important for parents.The methods of Chinese ancient family education:A. It was a process of step by step. In our country, the step by step teaching method can be dated back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the Book of Rites, people had recorded how to teach children in their different ages.B. Set an example for children. Chinese ancient family education was a process of unconscious influence. Parents taught their children by doing, always the skills.C. Different families had different family precepts. Except the virtue of filial and piety, there were no prescriptive learning content. Therefore, parents depended on how to teach their children and what to teach, which is called family precepts.The content of Chinese ancient family education:A. Moral character education. Instead of the knowledge, moral character education received more attention, as it was the first thing children learning, and it would last for their lifetime.B. Living skills and practice. Most of the ancient children were not only studying. They had to help parents to do some housework, and learned living skills at the same time. In ancient times, the knowledge is very practical, so children could learn by practicing.The influence of Chinese ancient family education:A. Positive effect:Family education had become an important part in Chinese ancient education. Though family education, our national virtues can be inherited. Some education concepts are still very useful until now. In ancient times, it had made contributions to maintain the stability of society.B. Negative effect:It is no denying the fact that family education as a tool of feudalism has many pedantic concepts. It had killed the children’s natural instincts, neglected female’s right, and so on.Chapter 2: Chinese Modern family educationWith the development of society, family education had also changed a lot. New social environment had put forward new challenges to family education. The purposes of Chinese ancient family education:Compared with ancient family education, modern family education is much more realistic. Parents have a high expectation for their children not for the national need, but for children’s future. In nowadays society, a person’s educational background connects with his social position. If a person is well educated, he is more possible to have a decent job and thus have a relatively higher social position, and is respected by others.The features of Chinese ancient family education:A. Nowadays, most of the families have only one child. This phenomenon has caused many educational and social problems. It is reported that the only child has become the center of family, and most of them have been spoiled.It is totally different from the ancient modal which reaches a totally different result that had aroused great debate around the country.B. Knowledge-based pedagogy has replaced moral education. In present time, when we refer to education, we are talking about the knowledge taught in school. The storage of knowledge now is the main measurement of a person’s educational level. Moral education has been greatly ignored compared to ancient time, and it is only taught in kindergartens and primary schools. Therefore, moral problems have increased relatively.C. Some functions of family education have been replaced by school education. As the knowledge increased dramatically, parents’ educational ability are of varying quality. They cannot teach their children systematically and comprehensively. Therefore, children need to be taught by professional teachers. Thus, school education gradually becomes the major part in educational system. Children spend more time with their schoolmates. However, most of the parents hence neglect the importance of family education, and over depend on the school education, which also become a serious problem in society.D. The problem of extremely imbalanced distribution of educational resources is also very severe. In remote areas, the children have no professional teachers to teach them, no advanced educational equipment, even no safe schools. However, in cities, especially in key schools, the students have excellent teachers, colorful school life, and beautiful school. These differences have determined their different fates to a great extent. The problem is vivid reflection of the great gap between the rich and the poor in china society.E. Children have great pressure than before. As we have mentioned, most families have only child, so parents have higher expectations for their children. Children could be sent to various after-school classes and so-called interest classes to study. Many educators have pointed out that the psychology to have great ambitions for their children is putting too much pressure to children and is destroying their childhood.The methods of Chinese ancient family education:A. Teach children through words rather than actions. Parents, especially in cities, have less time to company with their children, hoping that school can finish the work of teaching their children.The content of Chinese ancient family education:A. In the document of government, there are five elements to measure a student’s quality——virtue, intelligence, health, aesthetic and labor. However, once the students go into the schools, intelligence becomes the dominant element above all. It is why many children have high scores but low capacity.The influence of Chinese ancient family education:A. positive effect:In present day, people have multiple choices for their education according to their interests. Various careers have provided children many possible ways to go. Compared to ancient times, parents pay more attention to children’s education. Pedantic education concepts have been abandoned, and advanced concepts have been welcomed.B. negative effect:However, problems are also severe in present days. Children still controlled by parents. Besides, they have shouldered overweight pressure and parents high expectations in young age. The excessive attention to intelligence makes children develop imbalanced. Parents over depend on school education causing the deficiency of family education. Parents tend to spoil the only child making children develop bad hobbies. The imbalanced distribution of educational resources has deprived the right from the students living in remote areas. Many social problems can attribute to the deficiency of moral education.。