The fate of public education and therefore the future of our democracy is at risk.Powerful forces are eroding commitment to public schools and weakening democraticresolve. Yet even in deeply troubling times, it is possible to broaden social imagination andempower efforts toward systemic progressive reform. This book is an invitation for widespreadparticipation in a complex process-re-envisioning education and democracy. To reenvision-to envision and then envision again-is to join with others in imagining new possibilitiesand bringing these into existence. Re-envisioning is a radically social process.Although distinct and varied individual contributions are required, transformative visions cannotbe advanced through the agency of one charismatic person, or bound by one influentialperspective. The process of re-envisioning, like all forms of democratic living and learning,draws energy and insight when connection and communion are sustained across dimensionsof difference. Re-envisioning is an intensely creative and exploratory process. It is notaccomplished through careful construction of "best laid plans" aimed at attaining certaintyand control. Re-envisioning is instead experienced and evolved by preparing for, and thenacting on, informed and strategic glimpses. These brief and fleeting impressions-multimodaland multi-sensory, incomplete and ambiguous, always in motion-offer potentials, butno definitive answers. Re-envisioning is a profoundly ethical and aesthetic process, centeredin prospects for social justice, compassion, reform, and renewal. Social movements are rarely motivated by commitments tonarrow objectives aimed at solving specific problems. Across time and cultures we are drawn to persons and processes, toideas and images, that call us back to remember our highest principles, and move us forward to respond with acts of integrityand grace. Recurrent themes of beauty and power-here mirrored in chapter titles-inspire, guide, and liberate collectivevision and principled action. Re-envisioning, although accessible to all, remains largely undeveloped and underutilized. Ourcollective ability to realize progressive aspirations for education and democracy can be significantly enhanced by integratingthe process of re-envisioning with other, more familiar, educational and political reform strategies.