Featured Series
Democracy Rising

Think of it as a garden: you start with the soil, preparing it for seeding, and you work with the grassroots, cultivating a crop and nurturing it carefully over time. Democracy is more like an annual crop than a perennial one; it needs to be refreshed periodically. It won’t keep thriving if it’s left alone.

In addition to fostering communication and thinking skills, deliberation can lead to changes in how young people engage as learners and citizens.

All of the participating teachers agreed that their understanding of citizenship changed from one that emphasized following rules and helping others to one that fostered student engagement in making decisions together about shared problems in the classroom community and beyond.

Citizens’ Councils can also be part of a broader range of processes used within a given region to support a larger “deliberative system.”

Despite their differences, the intense time pressure, and being continuously filmed by a crew from Canadian TV (for an hour-long public affairs program) these ordinary citizens by the end of their third day had all signed a detailed, co-created, visionary agreement charting a course to greater mutual understanding by all Canadians.

The good news is that when place-based wisdom informs local solutions, the solutions are all the more sustainable.