Human beings have established society and produced education. Man is the subject and product of society and education. Society determines the development of people and education, and at the same time it is restricted by people and education; Education serves the society by cultivating people, but it is also restricted by the development of people and society. Therefore, when understanding the relationship between the three, it is not appropriate to examine one aspect in isolation, but to analyze the relationship between the three as a whole.
First, the birth of mankind, the formation of society and the origin of education
(A) to understand the origin of educational contact with people and the emergence of society.
Education has been inextricably linked with people and society from the beginning. This is a historical materialism viewpoint that should be adhered to in understanding the origin of education. There are many different views on the origin of education. For example, French sociologist Literno put forward the "biological origin theory" of education, and American psychologist Lu Meng put forward the "imitation origin theory". The main defect of this theory is that it talks about education without human and society, and denies that education is a purposeful social activity, thus fundamentally denying the sociality, historicity and class nature of education. According to Engels' thought, the educational circles in the former Soviet Union put forward the "labor origin theory" of education, which has been approved and accepted by the educational theorists in China since the 1950s. Since 1980s, scholars in China have put forward different views on this issue. Although no consensus has been reached, it is very beneficial to further understand the problem. Among them, the methods of discussing problems are worthy of attention, such as emphasizing the role of human social labor and human social life needs in education, and understanding the origin of education in connection with the birth of human beings and the formation of society.
(b) The role of labor in people, society and education.
Engels' theory on the role of productive labor in human and social production provides a scientific methodology for us to understand the production of education. Labor is a purposeful activity that people use their own tools to transform their labor objects to meet their own needs. The manufacture of labor tools announced the birth of human beings, the emergence of social civilization and the beginning of education.
People, society and education interact and complement each other in the process of labor, and are formed internally and consistently.
1. The manufacture of labor tools marks the beginning of evolution from apes to humans.
Engels said that "labor begins with making tools". Making tools has changed the "hand", making human movements different from those of animals. "Hand is not only the organ of labor, but also the product of labor", and only human hands can make tools. "No ape hand has ever made even the most clumsy stone knife." The importance of making tools lies not only in making tools more suitable for foraging and defending enemies, but also in promoting the change of "hands", improving intelligence and generating consciousness. "Labor" and "animal body" are a pair of contradictions. They are interdependent and develop in interaction. Labor determines the direction of genetic change from apes to humans. It is labor that makes apes become socialized advanced animals and develop into life forms-human beings. The birth of human beings provides a prerequisite for the transformation from biological evolution to social evolution and the emergence of education.
2. Labor marks the beginning of human evolution from nature to society.
Labor activities and the formation of society also interact. Engels said, "With the appearance of fully formed people, a new factor-society has emerged." "What are the characteristics that distinguish human society from apes? It is labor. " Labor is social from the beginning, and it is the common creation of the group. No one can work. People must form certain social relations in productive labor, and then in other common fields of life, and various relationship systems constitute society. Of course, the formation and development of society in turn promotes the improvement of labor activities. "Because the hand, vocal organs and brain work together not only in everyone, but also in society, talents have the ability to carry out more and more complex activities and propose and achieve higher and higher goals." Labor has become "more perfect and multifaceted".
3. Labor makes people and society need education and creates conditions for educational activities.
The evolution from apes to humans and from nature to society is also a process in which education gradually comes into being. Labor forms people and society, thus becoming an indispensable condition for human survival and social sustainable development. For the continuation of human beings and society, every improvement of individual actions and methods in labor must be widely spread among groups, so that individual knowledge and experience can be transformed into similar experiences and passed down from generation to generation; In order to coordinate productive labor and social life, we should follow certain norms, including various experiences, customs, etiquette, traditions and so on. These are all spiritual wealth created by the collective, which must be preserved, passed down and accumulated. These all need education objectively. Tools and languages created in labor, as a means to preserve, transmit and accumulate experience, are the main conditions for educational activities. Physical tools are tools of human material production, and language is a tool of spiritual production (or psychological tool). Whether it is a material production tool or a spiritual production tool created by human beings, it embodies human historical experience and people's ability to form and develop in the process of creating tools. Before oral English appeared, the transmission of experience mainly depended on the display of objects, movements and body language. As a symbol, language is the most ideal tool for human beings to preserve and spread culture. All kinds of tools are materialized human wisdom, the foundation of human cultural development and the tools of cultural communication.
It can be seen from the above that education is produced on the basis of labor and in the process of forming with people and society, and the production of education cannot be separated from the formation of society and people.
Second, education, people and society develop in interaction.
The history of education is a part of the history of human society, and education, people and society develop in interaction, so the historical stage of education development is consistent with that of human development and social development. Taking the development level of productive forces as a symbol, we can see the corresponding relationship between human development and social development stages in detail.
Human development: primitive collectors who use stone tools → agricultural people who use metal hand tools → industrial people who use machinery → information people who use intelligent machines.
Social development: society in the collection age → society in the agricultural age → society in the industrial age → society in the information age.
Among them, agricultural society is an ancient civilized society, including slave society and feudal society; Industrial society and information society, including capitalist society and socialist society.
Educational development corresponding to human and social development: ancient education → ancient education (education in agricultural society) → modern education (including education in industrial society and information society).