Family Education

Familial Education: the Foundation of School Education 1. Introduction Family is the first learning environment for children, and parents are their first teachers. The whole complicated and systematic school education is actually based on the familial education. However, the significance of the familial education and its great influence over our current school-based education has not yet been fully realized. As a result, inadequate and ineffective communication between school teachers and the parents has remained a common problem in some local Chinese areas (this paper will mainly focus on the circumstances in a few Beijing local primary and junior high schools), which has affected children’s natural growth and sometimes causes dissatisfaction on both sides of the parents and the teachers. The purpose of this paper is first to find out, within possible power, whether Chinese parents and teachers have realized the fundamental function of familial education, and what the current parent-teacher communication and its effects are like here in three Beijing local primary and junior high schools; and then to inform school teachers as well as parents of the significance of familial education, its great influence over school education, and some useful ideas and approaches on how to build and maintain effective parent-teacher communication here in the Chinese context. 2. Literature Review 2.1 The significance of familial education 2.1.1 The traditional views As a country with an ancient civilization, China has a traditional value on the significance of familial education, especially at an early stage of young children’s development. This can be vividly illustrated by a famous Chinese anecdote: In order to ensure a positive learning environment and a smooth effective familial education, the mother of Mencius had changed their dwelling place three times, and finally settled down near an old-style private school. Without his wise mother and good