A key principle of democracy is that individuals seek to advance the common good. Why this is important becomes clearer when children become more aware of the web of connections all around them. In Planting Seeds, Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh suggests that children make a drawing of "interbeing." They could start by drawing a snack they enjoy. From there "draw around it all the things that make that food possible: the sun, rain, the earth, plants, farmers, animals, etc." Include pictures or symbols to represent the companies that package and distribute the snack, the stores that carry it, and the money used to buy it.

— Kristin Ritzau, Thich Nhat Hanh in Practicing Democracy with Children by Kristin Ritzau, Mary Ann Brussat