EDUCATED CITIZENRY
"An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." – Thomas Jefferson | “Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.” -Marian Wright Edelman | “A social engineer is a highly skilled and perceptive lawyer who understands the Constitution of the United States and knows how to explore its uses in the solving of the problems of….local communities.” --Charles H. Houston | "Not even the best intentioned leaders can bestow independence as a gift.The liberation of the oppressed is a liberation of men and women, not things. Accordingly, while no one liberates himself by his on efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others.” —Paulo Freire |
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Educated Citizenry (ECit) is dedicated to advancing political literacy around the world through scholarship, grassroots activism and civics education. ECit seeks to help individuals and communities obtain the tools they need to challenge inequalities in their lives and communities and to realize their political power as democratic citizens. It seeks to achieve this mission primarily through guided self-help, assisting participants in becoming savvy consumers of political information and encouraging them to develop a critical consciousness of their ability to change their social situation. By so doing, ECit hopes to help communities in all nations create the conditions under which they can liberate themselves from the governance of “They, the people” and take their rightful place as co-governing members of “We the People.” ECit believes that such self-empowerment by individuals and communities is essential to the continued existence of democracy.