A Study On The Education For Life Theory Of James Walters

James Walters Shaped his Education for Life theory approximately in the late 1960s. Walters criticized the American traditional education on behalf of the true meaning of human Maturity, and provided constructive propositions for the reform in the whole educational field. He not only constructed Education for Life System on theoretical level, but also devoted himself to educational practices by building up Ananda Living Wisdom School (ALWS). And this promoted the effective combination of the theory and the practice. Walters was the Father of American Education For Life, his theory had a beneficial and deep influence on the development of Life Education in the United States, even in the whole world. My thesis mainly analyzed the Walters'Education for Life Theory according to theory of Marxism with various kinds of research methods including document study, comparative study, analytic study, and it would play roles for our countries'life education theory and practice.The thesis is divided into five parts:Preface: the meaning of the research; the literature review; the methods of the research; brief introduction to James Walters.The first part: the backgrounds and theoretic foundation. the former includes global, American and American Schools'backgrounds; the later includes Dewey's pragmatic educational philosophy, humanistic psychology and religious existential philosophy.The second part: the main ideas of Walters'education for life theory, which is analyzed from six aspects including constructing education for life system to solve the problems of modern education; human true maturity is the purpose of education; transforming the traditional curriculum; teachers of Education for Life; Serving others and happily growing; education for life is the cooperation of community, family and school.The third part: analysis of the features of Walters'Education for Life theory. Using the ideas of Marxism with objectivity, I point out that the Theory has five distinguishing features including the feature of faith, life, humanism, emotions and era.The end: Based on my research, I provide some suggestions for the theory and practice of life education in our country.