Why Do We Experience Awe?
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This New York Times article, newly posted in the Resource Section, discusses a new study that shows the impact of AWE in on Cooperation. Many educators, including Maria Montessori, have discussed the centrality of AWE, over and above the transfer of information, as a core goal of education. What could be more awe-filled than the “great adventure of an evolving universe” as a foundational context for education!
- Learning Stages: Adult Education, Early Childhood PK, Elementary 3 - 5, Elementary K - 2, Higher Education, Infant/Toddler, Lifelong, Middle 6 - 8, Secondary 9 - 12
- Type: Article
- Keywords: Awe, Cooperation
- Link to Resource: Click here
- Posted By: Jennifer Morgan
- Date Added: May 25, 2015
Thanks for posting this worthwhile article. I love the way you connect awe with experiencing the universe as the primary source of awe, and as a foundational context for education, Jennifer. I agree with you whole-heartedly!
You’re welcome Imogene! So important . . . and Awe is so often missing from the classroom! Our students endure hours of boredom when learning becomes easy if presented in such a way as to evoke awe.
I just love this. And I thank you.
I’m so glad Diana! Thanks for your comment!
You’re so welcome Imogene and Diana. It’s of crucial importance and so central to what this site is about . . . not just the transfer of information but also fostering awe, a foundational emotion that increases cooperation, and further . . . a thirst for knowledge and even zest for life.
Thank you very much for adding this article and you are absolutely right that todays schools do not foster wonder and awe. Even with learning the story/big history…if the contemplative wonder is not honored, if the subject is just more facts- what are we really doing? Where is the Joi de vie…the sensitivity to life and all its expressions? Lakota member Ronald Goodman sums up our predicament perfectly by stating: “As long as the discourse remains mainly secular and merely scientific-I think it is doomed. I mean if it doesn’t kindle us up to singing , if it doesn’t quicken… Read more »
” . . . we are retrieving a somatic sense that the natural is super and a huge mystery.” Thanks for saying this Orla. In prior times, supernatural usually meant a world outside the natural world, but the growing sense now is that what we formerly called supernatural is a natural part of this wondrous evolving universe. Thanks!!