Abstract: In the current society, many people are ill bred with poor quality. Now, international competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and this competition comes down to that of people’s quality. The primary position of quality cultivation lies in the family, so the family education in China has aroused great concern. But today, many families in China still have some misunderstanding about education, which has a serious impact on the formation of good quality of the young generation. Learning valuable practice in family education from other countries will help us come out of the misdirection of family education. This paper aims to make a comparison in family education between China and America, and analyze the causes of the differences. It  is composed of five parts. The first part is the introduction. The second part compares the differences in family education between China and America. The third part analyzes the reasons for these differences. The fourth part summarizes the enlightenment of the comparative study on family education. The last part is the conclusion. It is hoped that the paper will give readers the information about the better family education mode, so as to help us improve the quality of family education.
Key Words: China and America; family education; differences; culture

摘  要：在当今社会，人们素质普遍偏低。今天，国际竞争日益激烈，而这种竞争归根结底是人的素质的竞争。人才培养的首要阵地是家庭，家庭教育已经在我国引起了广泛的关注。但是时至今日，我国不少家庭的教育仍存在着误区，它甚至成为一种顽疾，严重地影响着青少年一代良好素质的形成。借鉴其他国家在家庭教育中有价值的实践，能帮助我们走出家庭教育的误区。本文旨在比较中美两国的家庭教育，分析形成这种差异的原因。文章分为五个部分，第一部分是绪论，第二部分比较中美家庭教育的差异，第三部分分析形成这些差异的原因，第四部分总结家庭教育比较所得到的启示，最后一部分是本文的结论。此文旨在提供读者更好的家庭教育模式的信息，帮助我们提高我国家庭教育的质量。
关键词：中国和美国；家庭教育；差异；文化

In the current society, international competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and this competition comes down to that of people’s quality. The primary position of quality cultivation lies in education. “Education has in America’s whole history been the major hope for improving the individual and society.” ( Fan, 2006: 101) In education system, family, as the cell of society, is the first place where children receive education and the first unit where the children get in touch with the society. That’s to say, in a person’s life, family education is the earliest and also the most important education opportunity. Family is a person’s first teacher. Either in China or in America, either in the ancient times or in the modern times, family education is always in the most fundamental position.