Today’s ninth grader will be 50 in 2045. While that may seem like the distant future to them, those of us who are closer to 50 than 14 know that time marches on swiftly. Right now, those young people are deeply engaged in the process of forming their adult selves. Our students will come into their maturity in the middle of the 21st century. They are tomorrow’s community leaders, state, and national leaders. They are tomorrow’s parents, teachers, and lifeline to the generation that follows.

The stories in this issue of Horace delve into the process of creating schools that foster political awareness and that take seriously the mission of creating responsible, active citizens and leaders of our democracy. These stories describe ways to help this century’s citizens find their best civic selves by teaching and modeling democratic participation.

Many thanks to Lewis Cohen, Flo Golod, George Wood, Jeremy Nesoff, Marcy Raymond, Dan Hoffman, Brett Bradshaw, and Andrew Barron for sharing such compelling descriptions of democracy-building in action within the CES network. We depend on and learn from your efforts to create the demand for and fulfillment of the best future for every one of our children and, because we are all in this together, every one of us.

Jill Davidson
Editor, Horace