"Some say the Present Age is not the Time for Meditation:" Thoughts on Things Left Unsaid in Contemporary Invocations of Traditional Education

Abstract

In this paper, we contend that the term traditional education has come to be identified, for the most part, with the worst that traditions have to offer (rote memorization, authoritarianism, etc.) and that this (mis-)identification has ignored another, more thoughtful, meditative and intellectually vigorous thread that forms part of most traditions. We explore a small part of the history of this mis-identification and some of its consequences. In particular, we consider the situation of Moslems in contemporary Canadian school settings and how this weak and intellectually impoverished understanding of traditional education has become part of a cultural debate.