Stand Makers - the Journal of the Stand Learning Community

Stand Makers March 2026

We’re open for business and looking for some early adopters who want to help us build a community around our mission: to educate, empower, and engage people in their personal, economic, and civic lives.

Our core model is a combination of:

• Personalized learning (you set your learning goals, we help you achieve them)

• Small Group structure (you are surrounded by a trusted team for support and accountability)

• Interactive curriculum (interactivity engages you in your growth and in building meaningful projects and relationships)

The result of this model is improved confidence, capacity, perspectives, and engagement. We’d like your help to prove it.

We have two memberships: Stand Members form groups and move through workshops based on their interests. Stand Mentors learn to design programs using our Engage model.  

We have two offers to get you involved at no cost:

• Join the Preview Pass for free, let us help you to get to know each other.  We provide our four week Leading Learning program for anyone interested in taking a group leadership role.

• Join as a Mentor and be an Ambassador.  You’ll get the Interactive Program Design and Delivery course at no cost, in turn you help support the growth of the community by hosting an event or activity.

Either way, jump into the community by joining the Free Preview Pass, and let’s talk.

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Here are some ideas to whet your whistle:

What if…

We all know that approximately 80% of chronic disease and premature death could be prevented by not smoking, being physically active, and adhering to a healthful dietary pattern. We are stuck in an unhealthy and ineffective model based on medical solutions.  Medicine cannot solve behavioral problems. If we could reduce health care costs for preventable diseases by 50%, we could save $1.6 Trillion dollars and make a whole bunch of people very happy. Just sayin’

Check it.  Change Is Social. 

What if…

You didn’t automatically just accept the terms and conditions checkbox you’ve been presented. We all do this, and we all know it’s wrong. We are all powerless. A contract is supposed to be a negotiated mutual agreement: not a take-it-or-your-screwed fait accomplis. What if, instead, you were presented with a contract, a terms and conditions checkbox, a privacy policy that you could not only understand, you could get help in negotiating better terms. 

Come on along. Let’s push back and empower each other. Fair Terms.

What if…

Political parties had to earn your vote?  Seems like the parties only do two things: ask for your money, and send you a slate of candidates and positions to vote for. They don’t educate you, and you only really have two choices.  We support independent judgment, we support critical thinking, we support the power of the individual. And, in case you haven't noticed, power isn’t given.

Stand for an empowered and engaged electorate. Let’s build independent voter education programs.

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Read our last blog; For the Love of Truth

For the love of truth gives you insight to Practical Academics.

We’re losing our shared sense of what’s real and with it, our ability to trust and think together.

More and more, people are overwhelmed, tuning out, or retreating into their own corners.

But this isn’t the end of the story.

The way back is human-scale: honest conversations, real questions, and learning together again.