Lu Xun's Educational Ideas Reflected In His Creation Of The Images Of Children In His Works

Liu Yazhi once said: "When we think of those people who have had great influence on children education in modern China, Mr. Lu Xun is the first and foremost in my estimation. " (1) Undoubtedly, Lu Xun is a great master in modern Chinese literature;and his noble character and his penetrating analysis on modern China and Chinese people, as well as his literary achievements have had significant impact on his contemporaries and later generations. Lu Xun is deeply concerned in all his life with the education of children, which he thinks is closely connected with the future of our nation (2). Lu Xun considers the healthy growth of children and the sound development of the young people as the future of the nation and has thus formed his own views on education. He advocates strongly in his essays, letters and his speeches: "Get rid of the poisonous dopes to our children (3) and liberate our children from the confinements of the feudal ethics. " The feudal ethics and morality have deeply affected the growth and development of our children;Lu Xun makes a call to the fathers, "Children should be born healthy, be given a good education and free development. " (4)A great master in literature, Lu Xun is regarded as a founder of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun is also the pioneer in the education of children in modern China. There are many unforgettable children characters in his literary works. Those characters are based on the children he knows well, and are created on the basis of his meditation on the problems of China. These characters convey his deep love and great hope for children. Children characters in his works constitute an integral part of his literary creation and have their special aesthetic and cultural significance. One can feel Lu Xun' s deep love and suppressed anger from the bottomof the heart, his passionate criticism towards the cruel and dark society and his loud cry for the resurgence of the national spirit. The children characters in Lu Xun' s literary works reflected his strong national pride, his agony on the gloomy, harsh realities, and his indomitable, invincible spirit for the rise of our nation, which is called "Lu Xun' spirit" .Lu Xun' s valuable and insightful views on the education of children are scattered in his numerous essays, prefaces and letters. His love for children, respect for their personal development, and his insistence on abandoning the traditional, the feudal ideas on children education constitute the core of his views on education and establish his position as one of the pioneers of children education in modern China. We have come into the twenty-first century, while Lu Xun' s views on children education are still enlightening and sparkling with wisdom. Lu Xun' s views on children education are the meditations of the intellectuals with the advanced Western ideologies and earnest passions for social and economic progress of the nation. The idea of universal education for people of Lu Xun remains the goal for today' s China.Today, Lu Xun' s views on children education are still worth our careful studies. At present, we are carrying reforms in education and emphasizing on "quality education" . Our ultimate goal in education is to foster well-developed citizens for the future of China;physically able, intellectually developed, and emotionally healthy citizens are both the responsibilities and ideals of teachers and educators. Reflecting on the present situation of children education, Lu Xun' s views on education are still of great significance to the current reforms and the modernization of children education in China.