A Comparative Analysis of Family Education between China and America from the Perspective of Culture

Abstract

Family is the first school of children and parents are the first teachers of them, so family education is the most important education among all kinds of educations in society. It plays a significant role that cannot be replaced by school education and social education. Especially under the background of globalization, and increasingly fierce international competition, the cultivation of talents becomes more and more important. Family is the first place of cultivating talents and family education will affect children’s whole life. Therefore, both America and China attach great importance to their children's family education. But because the two countries are affected by different cultures, the way of their family education is also different.

This thesis tries to make a comparative analysis of family education between China and America from the perspective of culture. It first gives a brief introduction of the definition of family education and its importance and the relationship between family education and cultural value; then it makes a comparative analysis of family education between China and America, pointing out their differences in educational purpose, educational content, educational method and educational result, and then analyses the reasons for these differences from cultural perspective; at last, it provides some suggestions for Chinese families, such as giving up parental authority, respecting children, correctly guiding children, encouraging children and so on.

The result of this thesis will not only be a supplement to the literature on family education, but also be able to provide some reference for Chinese parents to perform better in educating children.

Key words: family education, cultural value, differences, America, China