Tao Xingzhi pointed out: life education is the original, independent and necessary education of life. The fundamental meaning of education is to change life. Life is always like this, that is, life always contains the meaning of education. Since human society had life education, life is education, and your life is education. Living well means receiving a good education, and living badly means receiving a bad education.
He also pointed out that life education is innate and walks with life. Born to break; You can't see graduation until you enter the coffin. Life is the basic meaning of education: first of all, life is education, which exists in human society, and life education changes with the change of human life. Second, life is education and all kinds of life in the reality of human society are corresponding. Life education is the education in life, and education is carried out in all kinds of life. Third, life is education, which is a kind of lifelong education. Society is school is another important proposition of Tao Xingzhi's life education theory. Tao Xingzhi believes that society has been a school since the beginning of human history. If we look at society from the standpoint of the public, it is the only school for the public and life is the only education for the public. The reason why the ruling class and scholar-officials don't admit this is that they have special schools to give their children special education. Tao Xingzhi opposed this special unequal education and proposed that society is the school, so as to promote universal education for the masses.
Tao Xingzhi put forward that the society is the school, which is to expand the object of education and the content of learning, so that more people can receive education. He pointed out: We advocate "society is school" because there are too few things in schools under the proposition that "school is society". It is better to advocate "society is school" in turn. Educational materials, methods, tools and environment can be greatly increased, and more students and teachers can be added. Tao Xingzhi advocates that society is school, just as life is education, but also opposes the disconnection and isolation between traditional education and life and between school and society.
He thinks that school is society, just like catching a lively bird from the sky and keeping it in a cage. Cheating is easy because it wants to use a small school to absorb everything in society. Moreover, this kind of education has built a high wall between school and society, separating school from social life. Tao Xingzhi pointed out that society, that is, schools, is to put caged birds in the sky and let them soar at will, dismantle the high wall between schools and society, and extend everything in schools to nature. The combination of teaching and learning is the teaching theory of life education theory. In Tao Xingzhi's words, the combination of teaching and learning is the explanation of life phenomenon, that is, the explanation of education phenomenon. In life, doing things, learning for your own progress and being a teacher are just three aspects of life, not three processes of mutual disagreement. Teaching is one thing, not three. We should teach while doing, and go to school while doing. Taking farming as an example, he pointed out that if farming is to be carried out in the field, it is necessary to study and teach in the field. In Tao Xingzhi's view, teaching integration is a way of life and education. It means that the teaching method is based on the learning method, and the learning method is based on the doing method, so that you can learn how to do things and teach how to learn. Teaching without doing is not teaching; Learning without doing is not learning. Teaching and learning are centered on doing. Therefore, he put special emphasis on acquiring knowledge in his activities.
It is worth pointing out that there is a difference between the integration of teaching and learning and Dewey's learning by doing. First of all, Tao Xingzhi is talking about hard work and opposing the disconnection between labor and hard work. Secondly, doing so is also the beginning of knowing. Tao Xingzhi pointed out: since the integration of teaching and learning is centered on doing, it is natural to reverse Yangming's point of view and turn it into "doing is the beginning of understanding" and "re-understanding must be done first" He believes that knowledge can only be acquired if you dare to do it. It can be seen that Tao Xingzhi's work is based on practice, seeking knowledge through practice and emphasizing that practice is the source of knowledge. These viewpoints have materialistic factors in epistemology, so there is a difference between the subjective idealism of teaching, learning and doing and learning from care. However, Tao Xingzhi's practice is different from what we are saying now. What he said was only narrow and trivial personal activities.