The next generation of "citizen leaders"

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June 19, 2009 | 90.1 FM "First Tuesdays" | Houston, Texas

Originally published on 6/2/2009

 

On June 2, Demos' Kym King interviewed Windy Lawrence, Ph.D., co-founder and co-director of The University of Houston - Downtown (UHD) Center for Public Deliberation, on the "First Tuesdays" radio program about the concept of deliberative democracy and how the UHD Center for Public Deliberation is using public deliberation to help close the achievement gap in schools. Lawrence discusses why education is a public good and how the success of our schools and colleges affect all of us – even if we don’t have children.

The program closes with this year’s eight UHD Center for Public Deliberation Student Associates reading their reflection essays on how their notion of citizenship transformed since participating with the UHD Center.

"I think their testimony is evidence of the importance of empowering the next generation to become 'citizen leaders' and to become confident in the 'arts of democracy,'" says Lawrence. "Clearly, the consequences of building these skills and knowledge sets (ie., such as how to work through our problems collaboratively and effect change as a community) mean not only a better educated and more nimble work force, but also a more effective citizenry in our communities. Further, I think their essays are testament to the role that universities and colleges can and should be playing in their empowerment."

The program also mentions UHD CPD’s collaboration with Everyday Democracy and the work of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD).

Download the interview as an MP3 at http://demos.org/publicworks/listen.cfm