Marx's thought of combining education with productive labor is an important principle of Marxist education theory. How to correctly understand its spiritual essence and its guiding significance to the practice of socialist education is a problem that needs to be deeply studied. The development level of productive forces in primitive society is very low, and education is closely related to productive labor and social life. With the development of social productive forces, society has accumulated certain material products and spiritual products, resulting in private ownership and class, and human beings have entered a class society.