Democratic Design for the Humanization of Education

The purpose of this paper is to continue the development of a deep definition for democracy and to consider the implications for educators who teach to that deep definition. Democracy demands much from its citizens in regard to their ability to acquire knowledge of value and make sense of the meanings inherent in that knowledge, this for the sake of participation in the decision-making processes that are the hallmark of true democracy. Many societies that claim to be democracies are, at best, something less than true democracies and, to a large extent, this is due to the failings of their educational systems, systems that are remiss in helping their students learn to think well for themselves. The reasons why this is so are discussed and a call for the reinvention of educational systems is made.