Realistic Reflections On Emotional Education In Contemporary China

A society is made up of human beings. The construction of a harmonious society needs the harmonious development of the human mind. However, in the process of modernization, the bulge of technical rationality and the extraction of humanistic rationality lead to the loss of human affection. The lack and distortion of affection of the young in the present time not only cause social problems, but also deteriorate the vitality of the development of affection, and the accumulating emotional problems urgently call for the emotional education. Based on Marxist's theory of overall development, the present study explores such questions as the intrinsic nature of emotional education, the conditions of contemporary emotional education and the basic ideas and enforcement of emotional education from the perspectives of cultural philosophy and educational philosophy, attempting to provide theoretical guidance to the practice of emotional education in the country.Chapter One mainly deals with emotion and the nature of emotional education, which summarizes various theories of emotion and illuminates the value of emotion. On the basis of the elaboration of the significance of emotion for individual life, the paper reveals that the essence of emotional education is, in reality, a form of education of life and living, and one of how an individual can become a full-fledged human being. The ontological function of emotional education is to improve an individual's capacity and quality of emotion, thus reconstructing life proper.Chapter Two is a review of the history of emotional education in China. Our ancestors built their characters, expressed emotions and balance mentality in virtue of primitive arts and myths. In ancient China, the schools of Confucianism, Tao and Mo had their own doctrines of emotional education and had their own forms and approaches of emotional education in practice. Modern emotional education in China started after the Reform Movement of Year Wuxu (1898), represented by Wang Guowei and Cai Yuanpei. They introduced western esthetic education, and further practiced courses of esthetics to carry out emotional education. After the May Fourth Movement, education with the theme of revolutionary philosophy of life and the corresponding revolutionary spirit and patriotism became the main forms and contents of emotional education. After the foundation the People's Republic of China, the fostering of emotion and emotional education are still in the category of politics of the education of the philosophy of human life.Chapter Three makes a comprehensive analysis of the present situation of emotional education in contemporary China. Based on the summary of the educational models with some features of emotional education and the present situation of theoretical studies of educations, this chapter reveals the problems in emotional education in China and makes reflections as to the causes behind them. It further points out that the fundamental problem of contemporary emotional education is that it deviates from emotion per se, i.e. emotional education departs from human beings'world of life, and this, from another perspective, provides the breakthrough point of the reconstruction of emotional education.Chapter Four elaborates the basic views of the reconstruction of emotional education, one of which is to base itself on emotion per se, and correspondingly, the value of emotional education should be directed to the significance of human life. Another view is to return to the world of life, which is the starting point of emotional education. And emotional education is the return to the world of life, which implies a return to the world of human value, hence a practical activity in accordance with actual life and humanity.Chapter Five puts forward a few proposals concerning the implementation of contemporary emotional education. First, emotional education should be centered on such aspects as the emotional needs, natural and negative human emotions. Secondly, we should explore the features and approaches of experiential emotional education based on practices. And finally, we need to construct a multi-system of emotional education to foster the emotional world of the young through the joint effort of the family, the school and the society.Emotional education is a brand-new topic of study, which needs further exploration and perfection. The effects of emotional education can only be achieved through the establishment of a scientific and rational system, the formation of a complete chain of emotional education, and the use of the abundant national cultural resources.