Abstract: Whitehead, a famous British educator, divides the rhythm of education into three stages:romantic, precise and comprehensive application.He points out that romantic education has the characteristics of internal spontaneity, rich content, unity of knowledge and action, and multiple evaluation quality, which benefit students’ intelligence acquisition and emotional development, and conform to the foundational nature of compulsory education and the purpose of promoting children’ s coordinated development. The compulsory education development in China is in the stage of “romantic” education with the following difficulties: the advanced education ignores the purpose of “romantic” education; excessive education stays in the content of“romantic”education; rootless education solidifies the form of“romantic”education; unbalanced education narrows the evaluation of “romantic” education. The return of“romantic”education can be explored in the following ways: following the“romantic” education purpose and carrying out education step by step; enriching the“romantic”education content and relaxing the design activities; innovating the “romantic” education form and promoting curriculum rooted in life of curriculum; improving the “romantic” education evaluation and facilitating students’comprehensive development.The aim is to let children return to the true and let compulsory education serve for life-long development.