IDEA believes the way to better politics is developing a citizenry with the ability to self-govern. The capacity for true self-governance involves the ability to acquire and evaluate information, the skills to dialogue across difference and make deliberative decisions together, and commitment to democratic values, institutions and practices. Simply educating students to understand and participate in our current dysfunctional modes of politics will only perpetuate our ongoing crisis– we must prioritize the development of the skills necessary for self-governance, i.e. “education for citizenship,” to all University students as early and comprehensively as possible. Of course, students should know the functions of the three branches of government, the five freedoms guaranteed by the first amendment, and so on. But such rote learning alone does not get to the heart of the matter. Education for citizenship requires something much more like a "shop class" for democracy, where students can learn the skills necessary for self-governance through practice.
Additionally, this deliberative environment is also an ideal setting in which the University can engage students around the concepts of academic freedom, inclusion, and how they can be balanced via civil discourse, which is why the Shop Class for Democracy initiative has been made part of the Civil Discourse Project.