The Study On Educational Functions Of Village Temples

The village temple, as a public living space in rural areas and carrier of folk beliefs, has an important educational function. By participating in activities of village temple festivals and visiting temples, it helps to regulate mental health, rich cultural enrichment, build values, acquire knowledge and broaden their horizons.In order to combine it with the current education situation in rural areas, thus to better promote the development of rural education, we should fully exploit the educational function of the village temple. This study selects the Jinxian Guan, which located in Wugong town of Shaanxi Province as the object. Adopt the fieldwork research method and the basic principles of pedagogy. Combined with the theory of Dewey and sociologist Merton’s theory of latent functions systematically analyzed the educational function of village temples. Through the description of the educational elements, educational activities, educational effect and the educational environment, we can understand the educational phenomenon. In the last, achieve the recognition of educational function of village temples.The educational function of the village temple based on activities, so choose the main activities as a starting point, than conducting site visits, using the pedagogy basic knowledge analysis the educational phenomenon in the activities. According to the educational theory of “three elements”, we start an overview of educators, learners and educational media. The activity of measurement activities and sign posting can relieve people’s stress, play a better role in mental health. Persuading Morality telling and singing activities deliver the traditional Chinese virtues whose themes are “goodness” culture and “filial piety”. Ritual activities can regulate people’s behavior. Recreational activities have become an important way to enrich the cultural life in rural areas, and it has also become an important link between cultural exchanges and learning. Village temples play its educational function through these activities. The educational content inherent in activities, ultimately achieved the educational effects of relieving stress, regulating daily behavior, enriching cultural life in rural areas, transmitting traditional culture, and improving farmers’ production capacity.Through the play of educational function can effectively alleviate the stress of people. So in the participation of village temple activities can realize the psychological health education to people. The education of village temple can regulate people’s daily behavior and deliver the traditional Chinese virtues whose themes are “goodness” culture and “filial piety”. By participating in activities of the village temple, we can know about the rich culture of folk beliefs and folk art. It plays an important role in the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. It can be seen, the educational function of village temple has become an important aspect of expanding quality education in rural areas. In the same time, the performances of folk art can make the social life in rural areas rich. In rural areas, the educational function of village temple can play effectively compensate for the status quo of lacking in educational resources and can effectively functioning of quality education, mental health education and moral education. Therefore, in the modern education system, we can combine the educational function of village temple with the education status of rural areas effectively, as far as possible to maximize the educational function.In rural areas, there are lack of mental health education resources and quality educational resources, village temple education can only as a supplement to rural education resources, but cannot become a mainstream form. Village temple as a folk belief carrier, itself has superstitious color, so the educational function also has the presence of negative features. We should grasp it reasonably, so that the positive function can play effectively, contribute to the education in rural areas, and ultimately serve the social modernization.