Abstract:
Education is not only a social activity to cultivate people, but also a basic way to pass down social culture and experience of production. Family education, as one of the earliest and most important forms of education, is defined as parents’ educational influences over their children in the process of family interaction. It performs a crucial role in shaping children's values and views on life. In addition, it also helps to cast a unique national character. Different cultural soil gives birth to different views of family education. China and the United States as the representative of oriental and western cultures are chosen in this paper. Their different concepts of family education are compared from four aspects: purpose, method, content and outcome of education. Based on this, an analysis is given to discuss the cultural roots of these differences, and a further comparative study is made on individualism and collective spirit, compliance and independence, and Chinese and Americans’ different understandings of success separately. Finally, the paper advocates that a reasonable consideration and an appropriate introduction of those advanced methods of family education based on the understanding of different family education in different cultures, has a very practical significance in promoting the healthy growth of children and improving the quality of future talents.

Key points: Family education; Cultural difference; Values

摘要：
教育是培养人的一种社会活动，是传承社会文化、传递生产经验的基本途径。家庭教育是指在家庭互动过程中父母对子女的教育影响，也是所有教育中最早期最重要的一种形式。它对塑造孩子的价值观、人生观和世界观起着关键作用，对铸就独特的民族特性也有深远影响。不同的文化土壤孕育不同的家庭教育观。本文以东西方文化中较具代表性的中国和美国为例，从教育目的，教育方法，教育内容和教育结果四个方面详细比较了中美不同的家庭教育观。然后对这种差异的文化根源进行了分析，研究了中美两国在文化传统方面的个人主义与集体主义、顺从性与独立性，以及迥异的成功观。本文认为在了解不同文化中家庭教育差异的基础上，正确认识并理解借鉴国外先进的家庭教育方法，对促进孩子健康成长，提高未来人才的素质具有很重要的现实意义。

关键词：家庭教育；文化差异；价值观

1 Introduction
Education is not only a social activity to cultivate people, but also a basic way to pass down traditions and culture. Family education，as the footstone of the whole educational system, is what everyone must receive in their process of growing up. It is a vital component of culture. It manifests culture and in turn is influenced deeply by culture. Different cultural backgrounds give birth to different kinds of family education and thus bring children a different life and future. But what are the differences? What are the reasons causing these differences? It is hard to answer in a few sentences.