Abstract Family education is the process of family interaction in parental education, growth and development. It is the important part of education. The family is the starting point for the personal growth, and parents are their children’s first teachers, so family education has a direct impact on children’s personality development and future direction in life. Every country attaches great importance to family education, but due to various factors, there are different educational outcomes.54730

Based on two classical TV series – Home with Kids and Growing Pains, which respectively depict Chinese and American family education and children’s growing experiences, this thesis attempts to conduct a comparative analysis of Chinese and American family education from different educational purposes, different educational contents and educational methods through a series of specific examples from these two TV series. Then it analyzes the reasons that caused these differences, including the political, economic, cultural and other social factors. Meanwhile, it summarizes the inspirations to Chinese family education from American family education, and attempts to put forward some suggestions to perfect Chinese family education further.  

Keywords: family education; difference; Home with Kids; Growing Pains

摘要家庭教育是指在家庭互动过程中父母对子女的成长发展所产生的教育影响，是家庭教育的重要组成部分。家庭是个人成长的起点，父母是孩子的第一任老师，因此家庭教育也直接影响着孩子未来的个性发展及人生方向。任何一个国家对家庭教育都十分重视，但由于各种因素的影响，产生了不同的教育结果。

本文试图以分析《家有儿女》和《成长的烦恼》两部分别描述中美家庭教育和儿童成长经历的电视剧为基础，通过两部情景剧中的一系列实例，对中美两国的家庭教育从家庭教育目的、教育内容和教育方法多方面进行对比分析，得出影响这些差异的政治、经济、文化等社会因素；同时，文章总结了中美家庭教育的比较对中国家庭教育的启示，并提出进一步改善中国家庭教育的建议。

毕业论文关键词：家庭教育；差异；《家有儿女》；《成长的烦恼》

Contents

1. Introduction..1

2. Literature Review.....2

3. The Differences between Chinese and American Family Education....3

3.1 The Differences in Educational Purposes.4

3.2 The Differences in Educational Contents..6

3.3 The Differences in Educational Ways.....10

4. The Reasons for the Differences between Chinese and American Family Education12

4.1 Historical Background.....12

4.2 Economic Form.13

4.3 Social Condition..13

4.4 Different Traditional Cultures.....14

5. Improvements on Chinese Family Education...15

6. Conclusion..17

Works Cited...18

1. Introduction 

     Since the first Industrial Revolution, with the rise of Education Movements of all nations, improving education quality had drawn great attention in the world. Education, as the foundation of cultivating talents, has become the soft-power of flourishing countries. Yet, family education, which is regarded as the first as well as the last school of mankind, gradually proves into a fundamental, indispensable and even the most important basis for schooling education and social education. From the cradle to the grave, everyone is pursuing the education and involved in education activities consciously or unconsciously during the whole life. Hence, the education from family exerts a far-reaching influence on personnel training and turns into one of the top projects all over the world.

     Owing to the influence of traditional culture, economy and politics, the distinctive characteristics of family education varies from countries to countries which can be embodied manifestly in the two TV series named Growing Pains and Home with Kids. Growing Pains, as the most popular American family sitcom with compelling audience rating from 1985 to 1992, and Home with Kids which is deemed to the Chinese version of Growing Pains, reveals the prodigious differences of family education between China and America in respect of educational concepts, educational methods, family values and so on. On the basis of the reflected differences of family education between China and America in these two TV series, this thesis is going to comparatively analyze the differences of family education between China and America in terms of educational purposes, contents and methods, and explore the causes of these differences.