A Discussion On The Educational Function Of Children's Literature

Taking modern child pedagogy, child psychology and child philosophy as the theoretical basis, this thesis talks about the deteriorating child eco-cultural environment, and it especially addresses the development of modern Chinese children's literature in comparison with foreign classical children's literature works. It sorts out the Chinese children's literature development history which struggles between education and literature and fully grasps the style of literature, explore and search for the important meaning and value of children's literature upon children's mental growth.In the introduction, it defines the issues studied in this thesis, talks about the present status of this subject in and outside of China, gives a brief summary on the breakthrough and innovation of this thesis and specifies the important value and meaning of the choice of this topic. Chapter I discusses about the promotional function of children's education upon children's literature. It looks at how the foreign and Chinese children's education have provided and prepared for the formation of children's literature and also the complicated relationship between them from the following four aspects: the literature genes in prehistoric children's education, the entanglement of children's education and children's literature in the developing period, the huge impact of educational ideology on children's literature, the children's literature worker's educational ideology during the period of May 4th Movement.Chapter II mainly discusses about the significant meanings and unique esthetic value of the various styles of children's literature, such as children song, folk fairytale, picture story book, stories on growing, etc. have on children's mental growth.Chapter III talks about how the educational doctrines during the eight years of New China and the cultural revolutionary period have impacted the children's literature and makes it show a non-literature status and also have caused the hindrance on the children's mental growth. Chapter IV discusses about the government agencies, theory circle and creativity world's overthrowing process on the'Theory of children's literature being an educational tool', which confirmed the subjectivity of Chinese children's literature.Chapter V fully reveals the complicated children's survival environment, how the value of children's literature and education had turned into variables and how the process of changing had emphasized more and more on children's mental development which then constituted a harmonious picture of literature spirit that was faced during the new century by looking at the following six aspects: weakness of Chinese children's literature's main body, relationship between children's literature and adult's culture, Chinese female writer's consciousness, life educational value of children's literature, overthrowing of education by younger writer and internet children's literature formed a self objectivity in the anti-education.Chapter VI discusses about the close relationship between children's literature and Chinese education. It aims at boosting the development of children's literature and improving the overall student's Chinese education quality.The conclusion emphasizes that the children's literature correlates with the modern education in nature, and correlates even more with human spirit. Education for children and literature for children are the important spiritual guidance and main ingredient in the spiritual life of people's childhood. Children's literature is the cultural esthetics of humanity, rather than an educational tool or means. The educational function of children's literature is a kind of culture gene formed after the fusion of adult culture and child culture, which penetrates to the bottom of the mental life of both the adults and children. It shows the qualities of diligence, pertinacity and optimism, etc. in a healthy personality. This makes the narration of child culture a collective unconscious value orientation, and the educational function of child culture is thus intensified and becomes a kind of cultural value which continuously builds up a basis for spiritual life of people from different region, different nation and different era, and paints a beautiful picture for human's childhood and accompanies mankind's past, presence and future.