“A.W.E.” stands for Ancestral Wisdom Education. Education for wisdom—not just for knowledge; education for earth’s survival—not just for the marketplace; education as awakening awe, excitement, joy and creativity in learning—not for putting kids to sleep or diagnosing them with a disease because they are not at home sitting in a desk 7 hours a day.
The A.W.E. Project reminds us that awe is the appropriate response to the unfathomable wonder that is creation – from the magnificence of galaxies, to the complex and brilliant process of cell-differentiation, we are all products of 14 billion years of evolution. Imagine how much richer learning will be for all ages when we intentionally cultivate a sense of appreciation and wonder. A.W.E. is also the acronym for Fox’s proposed style of learning – an approach to balance the three R’s by honoring the teachings of the Ancestors (including the more than two legged ones), and by teaching values through what Fox calls “the 10 C’s”—Cosmology (and ecology), contemplation, creativity, chaos, critical thinking, community, ceremony or ritual, compassion, courage and character development.
The A.W.E. Project does for the vast subject of “learning” what Fox’s Reinvention of Work did for vocation and Original Blessing did for theology. With passion and conviction, Fox turns conventional “education” upside down, shakes out what is no longer working, and offers visions of what can be. It forms the basis for his successful YELLAWE project that he has developed with inner city youth, a vision of reinventing education from the inner city out.