Difference: Ancient education was more of a tool for cultivating talents for rulers, which greatly limited the initiative of individuals in charge and was not conducive to producing such great talents. Modern education pays attention to the shaping of individual comprehensive knowledge system.

Similarity: it is conducive to improving the quality of the people and improving their spiritual life. Cultivate talents for the country.

The ancient education in China refers to the educational thoughts, educational institutions and educators in the history of China. From the broad sense of culture, the culture created by human beings, that is, experience, knowledge and skills, is passed down and spread through broad sense of education. Therefore, education is the main means to spread human culture.

In the ancient literature of China, the word "education" first appeared in Mencius with all my heart, "educating outstanding people in the world". Shuowen Jiezi explains that "teaching is the effect applied to it"; "Education, training children well", education is teaching and educating people.

First of all, education is an eternal historical category of human society. Education appeared at the beginning of human society, originated from social labor, and was produced to meet the needs of productive labor and social life to impart experience. With the progress of society, education will continue to develop and will coexist with human society for a long time and will never die out.

Second, education is the reflection of productive forces, relations of production and politics, which is restricted by the laws of social development, economic and political systems and has essential relations with social development; At the same time, it in turn affects and acts on productivity, production relations and political system. In the long history of the development of human society, education is first and foremost a tool of production struggle, but also a tool of political struggle of the ruling class in class society. Therefore, education is not only epochal and historic, but also class and political.

Third, education is also restricted by the law of physical and mental development of the object. The role of education in social development is realized by cultivating people. As the object of education, people have their own laws of physical and mental development. Only by following these laws can education get the expected results, which we can call the relationship between education and people. The role of education in human development is manifested in the interaction with heredity and environment. The leading role of education is relative to heredity and environment.

Therefore, we cannot talk about the role of education in isolation from the constraints of social development and personal development. The relationship between heredity, environment and education is the dialectical unity of internal and external causes and the relationship between subjective and objective. Education is a purposeful, planned and organized activity that educators influence the educated according to the requirements of a certain society (or class) and the laws of children's physical and mental development. In education, we should attach importance to inspiration, mobilize children's learning consciousness, initiative, enthusiasm and creativity, and pay attention to children's "zone of proximal development" so that the role of education can be closely combined with the needs of children's development.