ACE 2018 is thrilled to announce Keynote Speaker Professor Peter Gray!
Peter Gray (born 1944) is an American psychologist who currently occupies the position of research professor of psychology at Boston College. He is the author of a widely used introductory psychology textbook, Psychology (Worth Publishers, with co-author David Bjorklund beginning with the 7th edition),[1] now in its seventh edition. The book broke new ground when the first edition was published (in 1991) as the first general introductory psychology textbook that brought a Darwinian perspective to the entire field. He is also author of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (Basic Books, 2013), and he writes a popular blog for Psychology Today magazine entitled “Freedom to Learn”.
Gray is a well-known critic of standard educational systems and is frequently invited to speak to groups of educators, parents, and researchers about children’s needs for free play, the psychological damage inflicted on children through our present methods of schooling, and the ways in which children are designed, by natural selection, to control their own education. He is a founder and current board president of the Alliance for Self-Directed Education, which is dedicated to promoting opportunities for Self-Directed Education for children and teenagers as replacement for coercive schooling. He is also a founder and board member of Let Grow, which is dedicated to renewing children’s freedom to play and explore, outdoors, in public spaces, without continuous adult supervision.
