Life Education Theory

The origin of life education in Mainland China can be attributable to the call of Chinese reality, the introduction of overseas life education and the driven by government documents (outline). The definition of life education is diverse among researchers. Based on literature review, the author finds that the wrong inclination of"life-oriented education", namely the preservation of corporal life is the first thing, appears in the current study of life education. Compared to previous"moral-oriented education","life-oriented education"is from one extreme to the other extreme. Owing to the overcorrection of life education, it makes people in conflict on the ideas of traditional moral education and life education, and unable to determine the value of life. In the final analysis, it is due to the confusion of the essence of life.Life of man includes three layers: corporal life, spiritual life and moral life. It is a multi-layer and complete system. The systematical feature of life makes that life education must base upon the"life system". We believe that the purpose of life education is not to survive, but to enhance the quality of life. First of all, the quality of corporal life should be reflected in"alive". Only"alive"makes life realistic. Second, it is in"living well". The quality of spiritual life means the richness and health of spiritual life. Moral life is horizontal interaction of people. In the process of interaction, people form kinds of relationships between man and man. Accordingly, the quality of moral life is reflected in the harmony and expansion of relationships. Meanwhile, the whole life is not simply the sum of three layers. The three layers have inherently transcendental relationship, which makes a rich life system and endows life education with the same rich connotation.Life has three layers, the enhancement and transcendence of subjective life realm makes the three layers united, but there are also contradictions and conflicts among different layers. This paper carefully studies the conflict between corporal life and moral life, and analyzes the causes of conflict. After clarifying the principles of conflict resolution, it puts forward two principles of conflict resolution, i.e. the ability principle and the role principle. It is reasonable to assume that conflicts are bound to exist, and then which is required to make a choice. The choice based on the true feeling reflects student's moral realm. The life education based on life system should respect subjective choice and then guide and promote the transcendence of life realm, so as to enhance the quality of life.