Family Education in Little Women Abstract Little Women, written by an outstanding American writer Louisa May Alcott, is famous for its vivid description of March’s family life during the Civil War. Because of her unique ways of family education, Mrs. March helps her girls cultivate lots of good qualities. During the changing of them from little girls to little women, Mrs. March play a really important role in this family. She is a successful family educator in this novel. By analyzing the ways how Mrs. March educates her girls, this paper tries to prove that Mrs. March has formed her own educational ideas like essentialism and pragmatism unconsciously under the influence of American spirits --- democracy, equality and pragmatism. Meanwhile, this paper also aims at offer some suggestions for modern family education.51898

Key words: American spirits; essentialism; pragmatism; family education

《小妇人》中的家庭教育摘要由美国著名作家路易莎•梅•阿尔科特创作的《小妇人》以其中对内战时期马奇一家的生活的描写而闻名至今。在马奇太太独特的教育下，马奇姐妹拥有了很多优秀品质。在姐妹们的成长过程中，马奇太太扮演了一个十分重要的角色。可以说，她是一位非常成功的家庭教育家。本文从现代教育角度出发，通过分析马奇太太的教育方式，映证了在美国精神——民主平等、实用主义影响下的马奇太太已初步形成要素主义和实用主义的教育理念。同时，本文也旨在为现代家庭教育理念的运用提供一定的参考。

毕业论文关键词：美国精神；要素主义；实用主义；家庭教育

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1. Different views about this novel from home and abroad 2

2.2 Studies of essentialism and pragmatism 3

3. Mrs. March’s family education 5

3.1 The situation of the Marchs 5

3.2 Ways of education in the novel 5

3.2.1 She creates a good family atmosphere 5

3.2.2 She becomes a good listener to her girls 6

3.2.3 She sets a good example for her girls 7

3.2.4 She lets her girls learn through their own experiences 7

4. The effectiveness of Mrs. March’s education -------- Changes to March sisters 9

5. Analysis of Mrs. March’s Family Education Practice in Light of Modern Educational Theories 10

5.1 Essentialism 10

5.2 Pragmatism 11 

5.3 The causes of Mrs. March’s educational principles 12

6. Conclusion 13

References 14

1. Introduction

Louisa May Alcott is one of the most outstanding American female writers in 19th century. She and her three sisters were raised by transcendentalist parents. Because of the severe financial difficulties, she began to work to help her family from an early age. 

Alcott used her pen to support her family. After publishing some poetries and short stories on famous magazines, she received big success for her writings. Among those great works, Little Women is the most classic one in American history. It was published in 1868, and made Alcott even more well-known. People in 19th century began to challenge everything. Therefore, the exploring spirit became the most important factor in American spirit. Alcott attempted this kind of revolution under the influence of the social circumstance as well as her transcendentalist parents. Little Women described a happy family of March’s. There are four girls in this family who have the virtues of sincerity, goodness and beauty. When they grow up, all of their great qualities have close relation to their mother Mrs. March’s unique education concept. Education is an eternal topic in our life because it plays an important role to everyone. While, family education is the basic element of the whole education system. All the good habits, characters, qualities as well as the knowledge of children form in the family firstly. Therefore, parents will be the first teacher to their children. However, with the development of economy and techniques, many parents are too busy with their works, they don’t have enough time and patience to educate their children, which may lead to a bad influence to children such as rebelliousness, affective flattening and so on. In this novel, Mrs. March gives us a vivid example of a good family educator. She is so generous, kind and warm-hearted and she is also the best friend for her children. Moreover, this paper finds two specific educational theories in Mrs. March’s family education from the view of modern pedagogy. Focus on this point, this paper will go further to study the family education part of this novel through analyzing Mrs. March’s ways of education and her unique concept. 《小妇人》中的家庭教育:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_55685.html