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ERA/USA was incorporated in the state of South Carolina on June 13, 1989, and was subsequently assigned: (1) the Internal Revenue Service Employer Identification Number of 57-0892734, and; (2) the South Carolina Office of Secretary of State Registration Number of 4670, with authorization to solicit charitable funds.
The Institute: To work toward meeting the specific need of meeting 21st century cultural challenges characterizing developing democracies on earth, Educology Research Associates/USA (ERA/USA) created The Institute of History and Philosophy of Educology for Developing Democracies in the World (The Institute).
Mission of The Institute: Assigned to The Institute is the mission to research and develop a philosophy of educology, i.e. to research and develop a philosophy of a unified body of knowledge about the organization of the effective practice of the educational process, without producing mis-educative experiences as democratically destructive learning experiences, hence, without producing so much waste of human talent: (1) founded in the philosophy of democracy, as a form of government, and; (2) founded in the philosophy of democracy; (i) as a way of life of a populace enculturalizing itself by conducting critically oriented reflective thinking experiences, hence, (ii) as a democratically oriented evolutionary, rather than a democratically oriented de-evolutionary, way of life on earth.
The Institute is one initiative of ERA/USA, along with the initiative of the following projects.
ERA/USA Projects
Project 1: International Journal of Educology (IJE), a professional publication in Lithuania organized into a section for articles in philosophy of educology and another section for articles in educology. (The transition for IJE to be published in Lithuania from it previously being published in Australia and then in the USA has been just recently accomplished. The aim, now, is to reactivate and improve it in its Lithuanian publication as IJE/Lithuania.
Project 2: History, Archelogy, and Educology of several villages on the Rio Pongo River in Guinea, West Africa (specifically the village of Farenya) exemplifies the purpose of educating, specifically West African and Eastern Americans, to the significance of the villages during the slave trade days, as well as contemporarily.
Project 3: Philosophy of Educology, as a philosophy that interconnects Lithuania, East Europe with the USA, exemplifies the purpose of educating university professors conducting inquiry about education, i.e. professors in educology, in developing democracies in the world about the significance of educology.
Project 4: Chase County Seven High Schools Association (CC7) project in Chase County, Kansas in which six rural high school (RHS) alumni associations (Cedar Point RHS, Clements RHS, Elmdale RHS, Strong City RHS, Matfield Green RHS, and Saffordville RHS alumni associations and one community high school (CHS) Cottonwood CHS alumni association are consolidated into one association, i.e. into the CC7.
Project 5: The New Timbuktu Academy (NTA) project in Columbia, South Carolina in which The Institute is affiliated with NTA to provide consultation, financial, and teaching services in regard to how to incorporate the experiential philosophy of educology into an elementary school education organization: (1) through what is called the Hands and Minds On Educative Experience, and; (2) through what is called a 5th Core-Course of Logic and Ethics, where the 4 Core-Courses are Physical Science, Math, Social Science, and Language. NTA, then, is an experimental elementary school, implementing the experiential philosophy of educology being developed in The Institute, as a "laboratory school," designed to come to know how to develop human talent, rather than to waste it, hence, designed to come to know how to increase the number of educative experiences and decrease the number of mis-educative experiences in the educational process practiced in schools.
Project 5 has now transitioned into Project 6.
Project 6: How to encorporate the experiential philosophy of educology into an elemenary school educational organization has now been transitioned to a project in Chase County, Kansas. Specifically, it has been transitioned to the Chase County Elementary School (CCES) in Chase County, Kansas.
In 2014, a decision was made by the Board of Education of Unified School District 284 (USD 284) that, in effect, unknowingly, began the encorporation of the experiential philosophy of educology into an elementary school educational organization, i.e. into CCES.
Through the good works of a Principal, newly hired to do the encorporation, the elementary school grounds of CCES was modified to include growing spaces, in what was designated as an outdoor-learning-center, in which living plants and animals were provided for. With such a provision, then, the elementary school teachers were guided by that newly-hired Princicpal toward applying the curriculum guides, for the core subject-matters of science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts, to hands-and-minds-on-experiences the elementary school students could and would have with the living plants and animals provided for in the growing spaces on the school grounds.
In 2016, after the newly-hired Principal had successfully begun the encorporation and had decided to move to another elementary school in Kansas, the recently-hired Principal has initiated the project-based inquiry oriented learning approach into the hands-and-minds-on-experiences the elementary school teachers and students were practicing with the living plants and animals provided for in the growing spaces on-the-school-grounds. And, in several instances the initiative extended the practice of such experiences off the school grounds into the community.
Since winning a $30,000 reward of educational material, provided by the Follett Publishing Company, the CCES Principal and Teachers have organized a maker-space inside of the school building.
CCES elementary school students, now, apply the curriculum guides to the hand-and-minds-on experience in the maker-space inside of the school building and in the grower-space outside of the school building on the school grounds and sometimes in the community.
From the perspective of ERA/USA's institute, the elementary school Principal, Teachers, and Students are directly involved in praxiologically oriented research about how to better the practice of the elementary school educational process in USA's developing democracy. And, from that perspective, ERA/USA is funding social and historical oriented scientific research about the effect of that praxiologically oriented research at CCES.
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