初等学校是儿童初次在家庭之外接触成人和遇见成人社会作用的地方。初等学校教育的目的是要使他们随着成熟和发展在心理、社会和身体方面都作好准备,而且要帮助他们顺利过渡到青年期和以后的成年期。关于发展过程或学校教育总的与生理或心理发展的相互关系,还有许多是我们所不知道的。不过我们可以承认早期教育有一种重要作用,它可以训练初步的智力技能、态度发展和读写知识,而这些正就是在今后的学校教育和今后的生活中发挥作用所必需的。基本的读写技能、一般的知识基础和对某些智力发展的促进,是初等教育所必需的。我们却不太承认早期学校教育的另一些方面,比如为集体生活所需要的职业训练或社会的和文化的目标,这些我们可能认为只有到了中等教育的水平上才是需要的。 Primary schools are where children first come into contact with adults and meet adult society outside the home. The purpose of primary school education is to prepare them psychologically, socially and physically as they mature and develop, and to help them make a smooth transition to adolescence and later adulthood. There are many more that we do not know about the relationship between the developmental process or the general and physical or psychological development of school education. However, we can admit that early education has an important role to play in training initial intellectual skills, developing attitudes and reading and writing knowledge, which are all necessary to play a role in future schooling and future life. Basic literacy skills, general knowledge base and promotion of certain intellectual development are essential for primary education. We do not quite recognize other aspects of early school education, such as vocational training or social and cultural goals needed for a group life, which we might think would be needed only at the level of secondary education.