As an avid advocator of education reform in the 1850s, Emerson was long neglected in the history of American educational thought. This paper, through the investigation from four aspects, namely the Transcendental Educational Thought, the Puritanical Educational Thought, the Romantic Educational Thought, and the Confucian's Educational Thought, attempts to figure out the cultural background of Emerson's education thought, tries to work out the connections between his ideas and his contemporaries, such as Thoreau, Fuller, and Alcott, and points out the significant role it plays in the history of American education thought up to day.