# Appendix: The Training for the New Democracy explained — The New State

> Chapter companion for The New State by Mary Parker Follett.

## What happens

This appendix outlines a comprehensive vision for training citizens in the new democracy, emphasizing that citizenship must be learned through lived experience from childhood onward. It advocates for group-based education in schools—through cooperative activities, group recitations, and self-government—to teach interdependence, social responsibility, and collective thinking. The School Centre movement is presented as both a prophecy and method of democratic fulfilment, offering group activities, civic clubs, and adult education to foster solidarity, responsibility, and initiative. The chapter stresses that education is a continuous, lifelong process essential for all ages, counteracting the paralyzing effects of modern industry and preparing individuals for active democratic participation.

## Themes in this chapter

### Education for Social Citizenship and Group Life

The entire appendix focuses on training for democracy through group-based education from childhood through adulthood, emphasizing interdependence, social consciousness, and continuous learning.

### Group Process as the Foundation of True Democracy

Group activities, recitations, and self-governing clubs are presented as essential methods for learning solidarity, responsibility, and collective thinking, which are foundational to democratic life.

### Neighborhood Organization as the Political Unit

The School Centre movement is described as a method for neighborhood-based democratic training and expression, linking local group activities to broader civic participation.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The narrator recounts personal experiences, including meeting little Michael in Paris and interactions with a successful business man, to illustrate points about education and group process.

### Little Michael

A five-year-old English boy who, upon seeing the Mona Lisa, offers a unique contribution: 'I don't think she looks as if she liked little boys,' used as an example of a child's valuable perspective in group recitation.

### Mona Lisa

Referenced as the subject of little Michael's critique, serving as an example of how even young children can contribute original viewpoints in a group setting.

### We the People

Implied throughout as the collective body of citizens who must be trained for democracy through group activities, continuous education, and social responsibility.

## Key lines

> Citizenship is not to be learned in good government classes or current events courses or lessons in civics. It is to be acquired only through those modes of living and acting which shall teach us how to grow the social consciousness.

True citizenship cannot be taught through formal classes; it must be developed through lived experiences that cultivate social awareness.

_This emphasizes the experiential nature of democratic education, a core theme of the appendix._

> The group process must be learnt by practice.

People learn to work in groups only by actually doing group work.

_Highlights the practical, hands-on approach to learning democracy through group activities._

> The training for democracy can never cease while we exercise democracy.

Democratic education is a lifelong process that continues as long as we participate in democratic life.

_Reinforces the idea of continuous education for all ages, not just the young._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_new_state_se/chapters/appendix
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_new_state_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_new_state_se/chapters