This paper explores the relevance and significance of the Practical in Schwab's the "Practical 1" paper in relation to the reconstruction of pedagogics as an educational discipline in China. It begins with employing Schwab's 'medical" framework--in terms of "symptoms," "diagnosis" and "prescription"--to analyse the crisis in Chinese pedagogics, and then articulates what is entailed in reconstructing pedagogics in terms of the Practical as a solution to the crisis. The paper next examines the construction of "life-practice" pedagogics by Professor Ye Lan and associates--a remarkable undertaking which in many respects instantiates the Practical, while not influenced by the thinking of Schwab. It concludes by linking the Practical to the European "Pädagogik" tradition and Chinese educational wisdom concerning theory development.