[[alternative]]The Idea and Practice of Robert Owen’s Popular Education：An Example of NewLanark School,1800-1824

[[abstract]]The Idea and Practice of Robert Owen’s Popular Education：An Example of NewLanark School,1800-1824 In the early 19th century, British government treated education as private affairs, so there was no State system of popular education. As a result, religious institutions and private schools for the poor played important roles during that period. Seeing the impact caused by the change of politics, economy, and social environment, like French Revolution and the industrial revolution, men of insight proposed popular education be the method of deleting the conflicts among different classes, the poverty, and the crime. As the head of the cotton mills, Owen saw the defects resulted from industrialization, he appealed to the British government for setting up popular education system to provide equal chance for people no matter what class they belonged to, what religion they believed in, what sex they were, and what race they were. Owen started his social reform in New Lanark in 1800, and regarded education as the core of it. He even terminated his business partnership twice because of having different opinions about setting up the school with his partners. Therefore, the school was not systematically set up until at last he met his third partner who accepted the ideal of popular education. He asserted that environment decided a person’s character and education would be the most effective factor of all. He wanted to make individuals have good characters by means of education and then let them build an ideal new society. The educational principles of the New Lanark School were child-centered instruction and learning with senses. Instead of using corporal punishment, teachers there helped students establish autonomy and learn actively. People who visited this school were amazed by the harmony between teachers and students and peer group. Between 1816 and 1824, admirers from all over the world came to see this school, so it became an important model school in Britain at the time. At first, this study reviews Owen’s status in educational history from the viewpoint of the historiography of education. Besides, the writer compares the New Lanark School with J. Lancaster and A. Bell monitorial system schools. From longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis in order to understand the evaluation Owen gained and the meaning of setting up the school. At last, the author re-evaluates the idea and practice of Owen’s popular education through the role he played in the school, his status as an educationist, the achievement of the New Lanark School, and the gap between ideal and reality.