Creating happiness requires people with originality, wisdom and courage. In order to clearly express the characteristics of an equal society to cultivate people who create happiness, Tao Xingzhi once wrote Long song: "There are two treasures in life, the hand and the brain; Replacing hands with brains will soon be knocked down; Don't think with your hands, you can't eat enough; You can be a great person with your hands and brain. " In order to spread it widely, he asked Zhao Yuanren to compose and sing. 1932, Tao Xingzhi said in a speech at the Department of Education of National Jinan University: At present, there are two routes for education in China-teaching hard-working people and teaching hard-working people. This song reveals that the difference between human beings and other animals lies in the separation of hands and the development of brain; The establishment of an equal society lies in the objective problem of physical and mental differentiation, so that some people "use their brains" and others "use their brains"; To cultivate children, we need to know the principle of mutual learning between hands and brains, so that children can acquire intimate knowledge on the basis of rich experience, so as to learn and master the sense of smell and knowledge more effectively and generate speech and knowledge.

Labor education is different from book knowledge education. Tao Xingzhi said, "You live a young master's life. Although you read labor books every day, this is not labor education. " "If you want to get an education, you must live your own life." In short, living a life of labor is truly effective labor education. The universality of life makes labor education need the participation and responsibility of family, school and society.

Tao Xingzhi believes that the ultimate goal of labor education is the sound development of human beings, which needs and simultaneously exerts the spirit of cultivating people's healthy physique, scientific mind, artistic interest and transforming society. Taking labor education as a part of the whole education can cultivate children to do it themselves, find labor opportunities, learn to see and do things, and develop the quality and ability of independent labor.

In the concept of life education, life and education are equal, and labor is the symbol of life. Labor is in life, not outside life. The need in life is the motive force of labor and the course content: life needs hygiene, and keeping and cleaning hygiene is the content of labor education. People who are used to living in a clean environment will have the motivation to clean and live a clean life by cleaning. Life needs diet, and cooking is the need of life and the process of labor education. Tasting one's own food is an evaluation of one's labor effectiveness. Life needs to treat people with things, and participating in treating people with things is an exercise of labor, and it will also develop a warm and hospitable sunny character. By extension, life needs science and technology, and inventing science and technology is also a kind of labor; Life needs to find out the truth, and exploring the truth is also labor. When there are labor opportunities in life, we should cultivate people's awareness of voluntary participation. Labor skills need to be cultivated slowly in the process of labor, and those who have cultivated labor skills will have the desire to find opportunities to display them. For those who have developed labor skills, labor has become a voluntary, independent behavior and a pleasure.