Course paper of Chongqing University A Comparative Study on Family Education Between China and America School of Foreign Languages and Cultures June. 2014ABSTRACTIn a lifetime, family is the first school, in which parents are the first teachers for the children. Children are the hopes of a nation, and family education is the elementary education for children. In a sense, talent competition is the competition of the ability of family education. So family education is very important. In view of this, America gives more attention to family education. Along with the accelerating process of the development, the disadvantage of the Chinese tradition family education gradually reveals. So family education reform is urgently needed. There are great differences in the concepts of education, aim of education, methods of education and contents of education between American family education and Chinese family education. This thesis will complete the comparative study from the importance, the definition, the differences and the reasons of family education between America and China. At the same time, the author hopes this thesis can provide some helpful suggestions for family education in order to make children grow more healthily and roundly.Key : family education, definition, difference, cause ContestChapter 1 The Definition of Family Education3Chapter 2 The Differences of Family Education between China and America42.1 The concepts of family education are different42.2 The aim of family education are different52.3 The methods are different5Chapter 3 The Reasons for the Differences of Family Education between China and America63.2 Different economic form63.3 Different social conditions73.4 Different Thinking Patterns7Chapter 4 conclusion8Works Cited9Chapter 1 The Definition of Family EducationWhat is family education about? Most people including some parents may say that family education simply means raising and educating. However, it is never the case. Family education is more than raising and educating.A General Introduction of Chen Heqins Thoughts on Preschool Education defines family education as “Family education is a society use to educate new generation with aims and systems” (Chen Heqin, 2006). It can be proved that as in the period of early childhood, family education processes are critical for elementary-school-age childrens learning and development.According to the traditional concept family education is parents educate their children. Yet, the definition of family education should be extended. Family education is not only the action of family but also concerns the whole society. Family education is not only the way that parents or elder generation educate the child or teenage in family, but all the family members educate each other. Family education is not only the education of the pre-school education, but also all life education.Chapter 2 The Differences of Family Education between China and America2.1 The concept of family education is differentThe different education concepts between America and China lead children to receive different education. In China, many parents only care about whether the children have a promising future, a good job, a good life or not. Based on these expectations, many parents feel that their responsibility for their children is to create as good conditions as possible as they can so that the children will not worry about anything in the future. Therefore, in the process of childrens growth, the most important thing that parents care about is to develop their childrens intellect, except for caring childrens daily life. Contrastively, American parents generally believe that the growth of children must rely on their own strength and experiences. Based on this concept, most American parents emphasize more to train their childrens ability of independence once they are born because they think that children should form a self-supporting will and the capacity to live independently since their childhood. 2.2 The aim of family education is differentThe aim of family education is to foster the children to grow in some direction by family education.There is an essential difference between two countrys aim of family education. To most Chinese parents , the aim is expecting their children to be a “ dragon ”, which is “ wang zi cheng long ” in Chinese. But American parents take hoping the child to be a man with the ability which is “ wang zi cheng ren ” in Chinese as their aim. For Chinese parents, their aim is to do anything to support their children to get high marks. What forms apparent contrast to it is, America parents give their children more training about improving abilities. They try to train their children to have