Dr. Peter Gray: Children’s Natural Ways of Learning

400 Main Street,Dalton MA 01226

19 May, 2022

Description

Dr. Peter Gray will talk about the role of freedom in the learning process and we design educational settings to optimize for freedom. This eye-opening talk is for parents, educators, people who work with children or people who were once children. The disruption in schooling over the last two years has led many to think anew about why schools are what they are and whether there are better routes to education in our time. In this talk, Peter Gray will describe how children's instincts to explore, play, and bond with others provide the natural foundation for education. He will describe the findings of his own and others’ research showing that educational models that facilitate rather than suppress children’s natural ways of learning have proven highly successful in today’s world. He will also present his vision of an ideal future of education. Peter Gray, Ph.D. is a research professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Boston College, and author of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (now available in 18 languages). He has conducted and published research in neuroendocrinology, developmental psychology, anthropology, and education. He did his undergraduate study at Columbia University and earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at Rockefeller University. His current research and writing focus primarily on children's natural ways of learning and the life-long value of play. He a founding member of the nonprofit Alliance for Self-Directed Education and a founding board member of the nonprofit Let Grow.