According to the viewpoint of labor origin theorists, education originated from labor, which is the dialectical unity of social production needs and human development needs in the process of labor. Its representatives are mainly educational historians and educators such as Midinsky and Kailov of the former Soviet Union. While criticizing the bourgeois educational thought, this paper tries to clarify the origin of education from the perspective of historical materialism.
In particular, using Engels' views on the origin of human beings and the role of labor in the process of human society's transformation from apes to humans, it is proposed that education originated from labor. Education begins when human beings produce means of subsistence and means of production. At the same time, it is believed that education is a conscious and purposeful social activity unique to human beings.
The representatives of biological origin theory are19th century American Little, Thorndike and British Percy. Yes According to the theory of biological origin, human education originated from the survival instinct activities of various animals in the animal kingdom, and there are also educational activities in the animal kingdom. Its fundamental mistake is to confuse the boundaries between animal instinctive activities and human social education activities.
Theory of psychological origin: American psychologist Luo is a representative figure of the theory of psychological origin. He wrote a book, Textbook of Educational History. From the perspective of psychology and Engels' basic proposition that "labor creates people in a certain sense", Meng Lu came to the conclusion that education originated from labor and from the dialectical unity of social production needs and human development needs in the process of labor.
The representatives of labor origin theory are mainly educational historians and educators such as Midinsky and Kailov in the former Soviet Union. On the basis of criticizing biological origin theory and psychological origin theory, labor origin theorists apply Engels' views on the origin of human beings and the role of human society in the process of labor transformation from apes to humans.