Modern Education Under The View Of Critical Theory

The critical theory is a social theory that was put forward by German Frankfurt School. It carries on the judgments on modern industry societies from every perspective. Its aim is revealing the various negative functions that modernization brings to the capitalism society. Obviously, as one of the subsystems of social system, the education is inevitably under the influence of this kind of negative functions.Now China is undergoing the modernization progress. Without exception, China and the west are all confronting the modern productivity, modern science and technique, and world marketing problems. At this stage, paying more attention to the critical theory of Frankfurt School can lead us reaching the industry civilization through modernization, and minimize the cost as much as possible while enjoying the industry civilization.The paper takes the creator of Frankfurt School--as Max Horkheimeran example. By commenting on his critical theory, it draws a conclusionthrough those aspects--the technique rationality, the mass culture,ideology, the personality structure and mental mechanism etc., to analyze and criticize modern education.The purpose of criticism lies in" self-examine ". It reveals conflicts then solves them. Criticism is not only a method that educators or researchers transplant from other science realms, but the more important thing is that critic consciousness should become one of the essential qualities that educator or researcher must acquire.