The Education Initiative is a long-term commitment to identify and evolve more viable systems for healthy learning, education, and development, especially for children at risk.
- Think – Education, Learning, and Youth. Workshops were held on various aspects of education, including youth, play, early learning, and governance strategies. Our work on risky youth behavior, led by Bruce Ellis, has a special section in Developmental Psychology; A book, Dave Geary and Dan Burch, eds., is in preparation. The Journal of Play featured several articles from our conference.
- Say – Sharing and Informing. A special publication on Education and Evolution includes a series of articles written by leading researchers in developmental and learning sciences. This collection of essays demonstrates how evolutionary theory can produce a comprehensive, meaningful science of education.
- Do – Redesigning the Learning Environment. We have established two VPK early learning centers in West Florida, one in East Tampa and the other in East Pasco to serve early age children. Our programs are built on principles that have emerged from the study of learning from an evolutionary perspective as well as other empirical and theoretical sciences. Our previous efforts at the Regents Academy for failing students showed highly significant impact within one year with a large effect size.