The Democracy Learning Lab
Introduction to the Democracy Learning Lab
Some of the most important work to be done in our country lies beyond fixing the problems with our current democracy. We need to grow it.
To do that well we need a “democracy corps” of everyday citizens. They are the primary resource for growing our democracy.
Eventually we will need a transformative civic education system across America. We have developed a powerful tool for a start: the Growing Democracy Learning Lab. It’s not a classroom.
Participants will learn through experience and reflection. They will learn to hear and understand others and themselves as they never have before. Especially, when they are in conflict.
We can tailor the Democracy Learning Labs to fit the structures and resources of organizations grounded in democracy. In fact, our mission includes being a part of an alliance of such organizations.
In this Section we lay out some suggestive and some detailed pictures of the Lab and how it works. We do this in 11 parts. The Guide to The Democracy Learning Lab will take you to the ones you want to explore.
Enjoy.
Where are the Roots of Democracy?
An underlying conviction grounds the Democracy Learning Lab program: the roots of our democracy are not in our institutions and systems. They are in our bodies, our hearts, and our minds as core dispositions for living our lives. It is from there that we as citizens of our democracy generate, shape, sustain, transform, and transmit its institutions and systems…which, in turn, shape us.
