Abstract   As we all know, the family is the first place for nurturing talents. Family education, closely related to a person’s whole life, is one of the earliest and most important forms of education. Nowadays, with the international cooperations are developing rapidly, high qualified talents are in urgent need. So in many countries, family education is considered to play a vital role in shaping a child’s world view, character, and thinking mode. By cases analyses in Modern Family, this thesis sets forth the main characteristics of American family education such as respecting children’s independence, creating open and democratic educational environment and emphasizing on developing children’s economic awareness. Although the Chinese government and educators pay increasing attention to the family education, there are still many problems. Therefore, the study on American family education will encourage scholars to reflect on the current Chinese family education, and provide some enlightenment for Chinese family education as well.   53632

Keywords: family education; Modern Family; characteristics

摘要众所周知，家庭是培养人才的摇篮。家庭教育作为最早的也是最重要的教育方式之一，影响着一个人的一生。当今，国际合作与竞争日益显著，高素质人才短缺，家庭教育尤显重要。许多国家也认为家庭教育对塑造儿童的世界观，人生观及思维模式至关重要。本文通过对美剧《摩登家庭》的案例分析，总结得出了美国家庭教育的几个主要特征，例如尊重孩子的独立个性、营造民主开放的教育氛围、重视培养孩子的经济意识。尽管我国政府和学者们越来越重视家庭教育，但我国的家庭教育仍有不足。本文的研究不仅将会促使更多学者反思中国的现有家庭教育，还将为中国家长们进一步提高家庭教育质量提供有益的借鉴。

毕业论文关键字：家庭教育；《摩登家庭》；特点

Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………….……………1

2. Characteristics of American Family Education from Modern Family.2

2.1 Introduction to Modern Family.2

2.2 Characteristics of American Family Education.2

3. Reasons for the Characteristics of American Family Education7

3.1 Historical Backgrounds.7

3.2 Economic Patterns.8

3.3 Cultural Traditions.9

4. Enlightenment for Chinese Family Education9

4.1 More Attention to Developing Personal Independence.10

4.2 Focus on Cultivating Methods10

4.3 Emphasis on Instilling the Consciousness of Freedom, Democracy and Diligence11

5. Conclusion .11

Works Cited.13

1. Introduction

     At present, more and more attention is being paid to to family education in China. Generally speaking, family education is the purposeful influence in the family, no matter parents on the issues, issues on the parents, the elder on the younger or the younger on the younger. (Zhao Zhongxin, 2001:5). The purpose of family education is not only to teach children how to deal with the relationships with their parents and other family members, but also to promote children’s psychological and physiological developments. In other words, as the pre-school education and the life-long education, family education is not just a matter of a certain family, but a matter of the entire society.   

     Some educators point out that most Chinese parents are concerned about the child’s intellect, instead of paying much attention to the child’s moral education, physical education, aesthetics education, and psychological health. In reality, Chinese parents focus more on child’s score in general knowledge courses, but they rarely take the child’s own interests and hobbies into consideration.