Abstract: “Promoting mental health through labor education” is a new measure for the comprehensive coverage of mental health education based on systematic thinking,and also a new perspective for mental health work under the Healthy China strategy.This article mainly elaborates on the connotation of “promoting mental health through labor education” from three aspects,including education pathway,efficiency mechanism and ultimate objective.By tracing back to the Marxist concept of labor,as well as the theories of embodied cognition and developmental psychology,this article,from different dimensions,explains in depth the theoretical foundations of “promoting mental health through labor education”.Under the integrated theoretical framework of multiple disciplines,five major practical paths of “promoting mental health through labor education” are proposed,i.e.,systematically designing integrated educational goals,constructing a flexible and appropriate curriculum content system,emphasizing the integration of education and practice,valuing multi-dimensional evaluation and positive feedback,and synergizing multiple educational bodies of home,school,and community.It is hoped that this will provide a basic guidance for the educational practice of “promoting mental health through labor education”.

Key words: labor education, mental health, theoretical foundations, practical paths