Talk:Contemplative education

Mahidol University
Ah, I see now. I just reverted a link to the contemplative education center at Mahidol University in Thailand, thinking it was link spam. But it does look like they have a self described contemplative education center there. It was just that the english version of the site did not load for me so I couldn't see what it's really about. I could only navigate the Thai site about the center. Perhaps if someone could expand a section on that universities article about the center we could link to that article from here. Thoughts? - Owlmonkey (talk) 18:51, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that this page be merged with "Naropa University." My reasoning:

1. The term "Contemplative education" seems to be promoted almost exclusively by people associated with Naropa and / or the Trungpa organizations. While a few professors can be found using the term elsewhere, they seem to have Naropa ties, and in any case their universities do not promote the concept as Naropa does.

(Thailand's Mahidol University, mentioned above, raises an interesting problem in that what they mean by the term is almost certainly limited to Theravadin practices, and would be very different from Naropa's "non-sectarian" approach. However, if editors wish to expand the article to include basically unrelated groups which use this term, or have other commonalities, then that would be enough of a distinction.)

2. This article mainly repeats information found in "Naropa University," or in the school's own website. The same is true of the links, sources, and "see also" section. What little new material is introduced, would fit very easily under a subsection in the Naropa University article. (For example, the five-college group.) I would sing a different tune if this article were to carefully examine the origin, history, and usage of the term, but as it stands it is hard to distinguish from an ad.

I look forward to your discussion. --Dawud


 * Comment: Looking around for more, I'm finding a translation of A-T. Tymieniecka use the term liberally to discuss education systems in "Phenomenology of Life" published in 1899, for example when discussing Montessori methods. It's used by Eva Brann to describe the education approach of Plato in "Philosophers on Education". I agree Naropa seems to be championing the term in American English usage, but I suspect the concept of contemplative styles of education is really just an older system that predates Naropa University. It may be the dominant approach in Tibet - say in a shedra system of education there - or in Theravadan culture as you point out and therefore it makes sense that Naropa would be coining the concept in English even if it really is much older and not particularly specific to Naropa nor a Naropa innovation. But as a separate article I agree it makes more sense if it talks about contemplative approaches to education (ala Plato, asian culture) versus utilitarian approaches to education and is not particularly framed as a Naropa program or innovation. - Owlmonkey (talk) 19:49, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Reply. In that case, I have to ask: what is this article about? The English name...? The general concept of integrating spirituality into education...? (And what about Roman Catholic education, Jewish education, etc.?) Some specific form of "contemplative education" as understood by Naropa University? (I fail to see what this might be. Mudra Space Awareness?)


 * Your observation that Naropa's approach is not especially unique would seem to rule out the third option. The second option seems far too broad--each religion, at least, ought to receive separate treatment. The first option risks being non-noteworthy. Citation of Tymieniecka presumes that he actually uses the phrase "contemplative education," but even then this would be a coincidence, and then I am not sure what the point of the article would be.--Dawud —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.167.169.239 (talk) 06:21, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

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