C.U.L.T.C.U.L.T. Kids · The Worlds · Progressive Planet

Cultivating Underdeveloped Leaders Today

The CIVIC World

The system runs around you every day. This planet teaches how it actually works — the branches, the levels, the laws, the maps, the names. Information, not advocacy. The opinions are yours to form.

← Back to entrance
Who Actually Decides

Wanting something changed is easy. Finding who can say yes is the whole job.

A rule you think is unfair. A broken swing nobody reports. A petition with 200 signatures that changed nothing. Ten situations where the difference between complaining and changing something is one question: who actually holds the decision? No parties and no politicians on this planet — just how decisions really get made, from a classroom up to a town.

What this planet is aboutread once

This is the only planet on the platform that needs to state its rules out loud, because the topic is the one most adults disagree about. Here's what this planet does and doesn't do — in plain English, before you read another word.

What we DO here

Teach the system

  • Explain how the three branches work
  • Explain the three levels of government
  • Show you the 50 states + their capitals
  • Show you the 7 continents + their major countries
  • Define what laws are, who makes them, who enforces them
  • Explain how voting and elections actually function
  • Give you the vocabulary to ask better questions
What we DON'T do here

Tell you what to think

  • Tell you which political party is right
  • Tell you which religion or worldview is right
  • Call any leader a hero or a villain
  • Tell you how to vote when you grow up
  • Argue political positions, even softly
  • Treat any opinion as the obvious answer
  • Pretend the platform agrees with one side

The promise: this planet is information, not persuasion. Your beliefs belong to you. Your opinions belong to you. Our job is to give you the system clearly enough that you can think for yourself — and disagree with anyone, including us.

Everything else on this planetlater, not now
The people who shape the world are usually the ones who understood the system early. Not because the system is fair. Because if you know how it works, you can use it — and so can the people you live with. This planet exists so you'll know how it works, not what to feel about it.
— A foundation rule of this world

01 · The shape of it

The three branches.

Every level of American government is split into three parts. None of them is allowed to do everything. Each one watches the others. Tap a branch to see what it does.

02 · The layers of it

The three levels.

Each branch above shows up at three different levels. The federal level handles the whole country. The state level handles your state. The local level handles your town or city. Tap a level to see what each one actually decides.

03 · The map of it

50 states. 50 capitals.

Tap a state to reveal its capital. Switch to Quiz Me mode to test recall — you'll be shown a state, asked to pick its capital from four choices, and your best score saves on this device.

04 · The bigger map

Seven continents. Hundreds of countries.

The United States is one country among ~195. Tap a continent to see its largest countries by population, plus their capitals. The country list isn't every country — it's the largest and most-named ones at this age.

05 · The words you'll hear

Laws. Politics. What they actually mean.

Two words you hear adults say a lot. Most kids learn them as something heavy and hard. They aren't.

More on this planet

The Civic main page is comprehensive on its own — the four cards below are the depth roadmap for upcoming workshops. Roadmap and Tools are queued; Playground and Kit are in design.

Across Cultures

The human story of how humans organize

Many cultures around the world tell stories about this.

Hebraic
A priest-king named Melchizedek who taught person-to-person, not through institutions.
Buddhist
Groups called sanghas that work together without a top boss.
Sumer
A god named Enki who gave good counsel without being in charge.
Progressive Planet · this planet appears on every CULT platform — Kids, Teens, Adult. Same archetype. Different depth at each age.

Planet · Civic

How the System Actually Works.

Most kids meet government as a list of names to memorize for a test. This planet teaches it as a living system you live inside — the shape of it, the levels of it, the limits of it.

Mode · Browse Personal best: / 10
Tap a continent above
There are 7 continents on Earth. The list above is them.
Concept

What is a law?

A law is a rule that a government makes. If you break it, the government can take some kind of action — a fine, a court date, sometimes time in jail.

Laws come from the Legislative branch (the people who write the rules), are signed by the Executive branch (the people who run the day-to-day), and are interpreted by the Judicial branch (the people who decide what the rules mean when there's an argument).

Laws kids actually run into:

  • The age you can drive a car (state law — varies)
  • Whether you have to wear a helmet on a bike (local or state)
  • What time you legally have to be in school (state)
  • That a store can't sell you certain things until a certain age (federal + state)
  • That theft is illegal everywhere (federal + state + local, all three)

Most laws don't apply to you because you're a kid — but every law that protects you (against being hurt, against being lied to in a sale, against being treated unfairly because of who you are) is also a law somebody had to write.

Concept

What is politics?

Politics is what happens when a group of people has to make a decision together and they don't all agree. That's it. Not a dirty word. Not a fight. Just the process of figuring out what to do when you can't ask one person.

Politics happens at every scale:

  • Your family deciding where to eat dinner — that's politics
  • Your class voting on the field trip — that's politics
  • Your town deciding whether to build a new park — politics
  • Your country choosing a President — politics

Voting is one tool politics uses. Everyone gets one voice. The choice with the most voices wins. It's not a perfect system — sometimes the thing that wins isn't the thing the most people actually wanted — but it's the system most countries use because it gives every adult an equal shot at being heard.

This planet doesn't tell you who to vote for. That's not what we do here. But we will always show you how voting works, when it happens, and what is being decided.

Today's challenge
Find out the name of your town's mayor. Then your state's governor.

No internet trick. Ask a grown-up. If they don't know either, look it up together. These are two of the most important people in your life that you almost certainly couldn't name yesterday. The system is run by names. Knowing them is half the work.

The long arc

This planet is one stop on a single curriculum, not a standalone topic. The same subject is taught at every level of C.U.L.T. — a cadet who starts at Sparks never starts over.

  1. Sparks · Chispasages 3–6Community · who lives near you, and who helps.
  2. Kidsages 6/7–12Find who actually holds the yes — effort aimed at the wrong person changes nothing.You are here
  3. Teensages 13–17Power, representation and money; how a budget and a vote really work.
  4. Adult18+Standing in the room — boards, councils, contracts, and what you sign for others.

Every level is open to everybody. Nobody is asked their age, and nobody is tracked. A grown adult who never got taught this is welcome to start at the bottom rung, and a twelve-year-old who is ready is welcome to climb.