The efforts to reform the U.S. educational system should focus on the goal of creating a Learning Society. A Learning Society is based upon the commitment to a set of values and to a system of education that affords all members of the community the opportunity to stretch their minds to full capacity from early childhood through adulthood. This paper describes what a Learning Society is and the steps to be taken in its creation. Members of a Learning Society develop certain awarenesses that are important to their effective participation in democratic decision-making processes. These awarenesses included value awareness, social reality awareness, problem awareness, community awareness, and system awareness, among others. The current efforts being undertaken to build a Learning Society in Elkhart, Indiana, and the commitment to lifelong learning that some European countries have made are discussed. Ten charts included as appendices illustrate fundamental ideas in various disciplines including career development, economics, political science, sociology, cultural anthropology, social psychology, and the search for justice. One chart is a diagram of the Learning Society as a cybernetic learning system and another shows the interaction between the social and ecological system. (DB)