Abstract

Family is the first environment everyone get in touch with when he comes to this world and family education is the first kind of education human beings receive. Many studies both home and abroad suggest that family education, as a significant component of education, has played an important role to the growth of individuals and development of the society. Different cultures and traditions have lead to different family educations. After joining the WTO for more than ten years and the reform and opening-up policy, the interactions between Chinese and western cultures is becoming more frequent, which also brought about reforms and changes to family educational concept, content and method. Parents, undoubtedly, love their children and expect them to grow up smoothly in a good education. But not many of the parents, who suppose to influence and propel their children’s future, have thought over what the purpose, content and method of family education should be. In recent years, family education has become a hot topic.

Adopting the methods of bibliography summary, film appreciation and material analysis, this essay analyses the background of family education, the concept of family education and the purpose, content and method comparisons of Chinese and American family education. The film Forrest Gump reflects some sparkling concepts of family education which are worth of digging into. Also, some suggestions, like democracy, independence, and equality, are provided for Chinese parents to help them to raise their children in a more appropriate way.

Key words: family education, Forrest Gump, Chinese, American