The thesis can be pided into five parts. The first part will give a brief introduction of the family education. The second part will be concerned with the development history and definition of Chinese and American family education, as well as the studies in this field. The third part is the differences between the Chinese and American family education, and its reasons. Finally, the conclusion will be drawn that it can’t be asserted that American family education is ideal and perfect, but the reasonable elements in their family education are what is needed, including the creation of free atmosphere in home and the nurturing of children’ independence, as well as offering some advice to improve Chinese family education.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Family education
As for contents, researches in China about family education are mainly concerning on two aspects. The first is to criticize and reflect the problems on family education. For example, The Critique of Chinese Parents edited by Fenglin had a discussion on current situation, concepts, thoughts, and methods of Chinese family education by interviewing some scholars in this field, teachers and students, concluding that Chinese parents had ten original sins: paternalism; authoritarianism; propensity for violence and so on. The second is to offer some suggestions by introducing foreign countries’ specific examples. For instance, American Family Education depicts some short stories happening in daily lives in America according to the author’s own experience as a domestic helper. Therefore, the readers would acquire perceptual knowledge.
China is an ancient country with brilliant history. Monographs about family education had been appeared since the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties. Yan Zhitui, a thinker and writer in the Northern Qi Dynasty, had done some excellent researches on family education and his book Family Instructions of Yan Clan, which gives counsels on how to act one selves and rule family to his descendants combining his own experience and his philosophy of life. The book can be viewed as a treatise about family education, following which a series of books about family education were published, for example, WenGong JiaFan written by Si Maguang in Song Dynasty, which holds that morals and etiquette should be practiced in family education and demonstrates the basis of state governing is family education by citing the Confucian classics. Besides, there were many books for women’s education, such as Women’s Commandments written by Banzhao，which explains the morals of being a woman for the females in her family and The Classic for Girl about feudal morality practices by women. In modern times, people pay more attention to the research about family education and the scientific theoretical system had been set up with many treatises about family education during that time. The patriotic general Zhu Qinlan, also known as the formal governor of Guangdong province, wrote the first monograph Family Education about family education in modern vernacular Chinese during the period of the Republic of China. In his book, he discussed the importance, the principles, and the contents about family education in a detailed way. The proletarian revolutionist Luxun also cared about the research on family education. He expounded many questions about family education profoundly and incisively. The book 60 ways on educating children without maltreatment written by Chen Mochu, one of the ten most popular educators in China, introduces 60 new ways on educating children and some skills about avoiding conflicts with children. Another famous educator Fan Jingyu also writes some books about family education, among which A good father is superior to a good teacher is a representing one. It narrates how a good father should be and what practical and useful educating methods should be resorted to.
Although in ancient times, there had some enlightening stories about family education such as “Mengmu Sanqian” and “Zengzi Shazhu”, the definition of family education hadn’t been put up until the May Fourth Movement. (Zhao Zhongxin, 2001:52) The famous educator in China, Chen Heqin had pointed out that family education should pay attention to scientific basis, promote the spirit of democratic, emphasize on the cultivation of characters in his book published in 1925 in which he also proposed the 101 principles on family education. (Chen Heqin, 2006:150) Since then, family education had frequently been mentioned in education works. However, the researchers didn’t analyze the connotation of the family education. 源'自^751],论`文'网]www.751com.cn 中美家庭教育的比较及启示以《摩登家庭》和《虎妈战歌》为例(2):http://www.751com.cn/guanli/lunwen_57443.html