Dorothy Day was all about awakening ourselves to the work of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy that are laid out by the prophet Isaiah. One of these is about “instructing the ignorant.”
Education has been a big part of my spiritual journey beginning in a conscious way when I first launched my master’s program in Creation Spirituality (ICCS) forty three years ago at Mundelein College in Chicago. I knew then that we cannot teach spirituality in a western model of education, one that overvalues the rational brain and undervalues the intuitive or mystical brain. I insisted on both “body prayer” and “art as meditation” to be part of the curriculum of seminars in order to balance the intellectual with the experiential to create a full educational experience.
History has proven us correct as thousands of students have attended our programs around the world and in Chicago and then Oakland, first at Holy Names College for twelve fruitful years and then at the University of Creation Spirituality in downtown Oakland for another nine exciting years.
After leaving UCS the obvious question for me was: What next? I received a message that went something like this: “If you feel so strongly about the pedagogy you have developed over the past thirty-one years, why not take it to where it is needed most– to high school students in the inner city who are dropping out in untold numbers?” This made lots of sense to me, so I set out to do exactly that.
We called the program “YELLAWE” (Youth and Elders Learning Laboratory for Ancestral Wisdom Education) and creativity lay at the heart of it for we had the students making movies using i-movie or creating poetry. The quality of work was impressive and the kids were learning skills in the process. The assignment was to make a movie about whatever one was passionate about but the student had to include some of the “10 C’s” as well into the movie.
The “10 C’s” represent a creation spirituality value system that deliberately avoids religious language and can thus be utilized in a public school system. I laid them out in my book The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human. Those C’s include the following: Cosmology/Ecology; Contemplation; Chaos; Creativity; Compassion; Community; Critical Thinking; Ceremony (the ancient way of teaching the younger generation); Character; Courage. The kids caught on to these values and were required to integrate a few of them into their movie-making. This guaranteed they were thinking freshly and learning values.
One freshman created a film on “Ecology and Muscle Cars” where he took a gasoline driven muscle car and showed how to convert it to a vegetable-oil driven car. The film ended with a race between a gasoline-driven muscle car and a vegetable-driven muscle car. You can imagine which won the race.
See Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest, pp. 327-362.
See Matthew Fox, The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human.
Banner Image: Person creating a clay pot by hand. Picture originally posted to Flickr by Arbyreed. For original post, CLICK HERE
Queries for Contemplation
Take the Ten C’s and meditate on them. Let each one sink deeply into you and you into it. You might spread them out over ten days. How do they speak to you? How do you live them out?
Recommended Reading
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
After 29 successful years of offering an alternative educational model to adults, Matthew Fox here lays out his basic educational philosophy and presents a revolution in education in the process. “A.W.E.” stands for Ancestral Wisdom Education: balancing the three R’s by honoring the teachings of the Ancestors of all species, and by teaching values through what Fox calls “the 10 C’s.”
4 thoughts on “YELLAWE: Reinventing Education from the Inner City Out”
Brilliant……I am interested in learning more. Is there a training program to become certified to introduce this curriculum to others? I presently work with children to unplug and play in Nature. This curriculum you have developed would be a tremendous resource.
So much gratitude for you and your team who continue to inspire and encourage learning through At a deeper level.
🙏❤️🙏
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Dear Barbara,
We are glad you resonated with the YELLAWE education program and are interested in learning more. There is a fairly lengthy exposition about YELLAWE on Matthew’s web page https://www.matthewfox.org/yellawe At the bottom of that page is the address of Matthew’s personal assistant and his contact information for finding out more.
Applying this to your play in nature curriculum sounds promising.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
This is an excellent meditation today. All around wonderful information for newcomers to the meditation world. Thank you for your excellent biography with your background information. Newcomers will find that helpful to their understanding as well.
Have wonderful and blessed holidays, and be safe and well. Amen.
Peace and Grace.
Amen.
Dear Barbara,
Thank you for your compliments and your well wishes. They are much appreciated. Thank you also for directing your fellow readers to Matt’s biography and background information.
Blessed holidays to you as well.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team