LEARNING TO LIVE DEMOCRATICALLY

I’ll be frank: I try to avoid talking about politics publicly, partly because I’m a self admitted shape shifting chameleon who can’t live inside just one color, but also because I genuinely believe all sides are needed for the world to work. You need the person who decides it’s worthwhile to start a box company, and the one who turns those boxes into monsters and tells stories to kids with them. You need the wild rock n roll woman who did way too many substances and wrote songs that melted people’s souls, just as you need the insurance guy who gets your family the protection they need. Thinking one type of person is inherently better, or imagining a world made of just one kind of mind, is irrational and deeply counterproductive.
 

This is exactly why I find Chad Hoggan and Tetyana Hoggan Kloubert’s new book so refreshing and so necessary. In Learning for Democracy: A Framework for Adult Civic Learning, they take a clear stance: the side of democracy. And by democracy, I mean the real thing. The kind that is uncomfortable and requires actual effort. The kind that is slower and less “efficient” than more authoritarian arrangements. The kind that is not just a system of government, but a way of living, a commitment to co existing with others while protecting human dignity. At its core, it’s the belief that every person has the inherent right to become the best version of who they want to be.
 

Beyond liking the book, I find it genuinely practical. The authors give us something we’ve been missing: a usable framework. It’s a way to shape curriculum and policy, and a way to take ideas that often feel abstract and translate them into something adults can actually learn, teach, and apply. Their model centers on four core values - autonomy, solidarity, pluralism and rationality - all held within a shared commitment to human dignity. Their claim is straightforward: democracy only works when every person has the chance to live fully and participate as a co-creator of society.

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What makes the model compelling is how these values relate to one another. The tensions between pluralism and rationality, and between solidarity and autonomy, act as the forces that keep us within the boundary of human dignity. No single value is allowed to dominate. The ongoing push and pull is exactly what prevents individuals, institutions, or ideas from slipping outside that essential boundary.

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We were fortunate to host the Hoggans for an interactive lecture and nonpartisan community discussion titled “What’s the Future of Democracy?” at Texas State University.  Hearing them unpack these ideas in person is energizing. They are masters at designing encounters that push adults to stretch, reflect, and question the assumptions they’ve carried for years, making room for multiple ways of knowing and ensuring everyone feels genuinely invited into the conversation.
 

Dr. Tetyana Hoggan Kloubert brings a powerful mix of philosophical depth and lived experience shaped by her years working with refugees in Germany. Dr. Chad Hoggan, one of the leading voices in transformative learning and a recent inductee into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame, complements her perspective with his relentless curiosity and decades studying how adults change their deeply held frames of mind. Together, they create a space where intellectual sharpness meets human experience, the kind of clarity that emerges when two people truly come together to think, work, and dream alongside each other.