Puritan Family Education In The History Of American Education

Family education should be an important part of the study of educational history. This paper attempts to grasp an important content of the history of American family education-the Puritan family education. The research text is the series of "Little House on the Prairie" written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, hoping to draw the outline of a historical aspect of education in American. It began to be published in the1930s and then was adapted to TV series, which has considerable influence on American society.Protestant (including Puritan) patterns of behavior and ethics are considered to be an important reason of the development of capitalism. It is also a basic factor in the development of the history of the United States. The paper first locates the Puritan history status of family education, grasping its main characteristics.Here we discuss four aspects of their family education in detail:the family religious education including reading the 《bible》、worshiping the god and praying; parenting education including the spirit of share、love between sisters and brothers、 etiquette knowledge and the punishment for children; family life education including growing in nature and coexisting with nature; family ethics education including parent-child relationship、conjugal relationship、the roles of father and mother and the ideal family.The traditional family and education values have been changed in American in20s. People are calling for the return of the puritan family education. The series of "Little House on the Prairie" which represent the traditional family education were transmitted and put in use on education. The president Reagan wants to make use of the book to advocate the return of the American spirit.Analysis of the process is important to understand the American family education, filling a gap of some foreign history of education research. The catachrestic of puritan family education has some inspiration and reference to our modern family education...