As if public education isn't facing enough challenges these days, we're seeing more poor students today than we have in 40 years. More than half of all students in southern public schools live in poverty, according to a report by the Southern Education Foundation. 14 states in the US have such a distinction, and 11 of them are in the south.

I thought I was a perfectly normal teenager. My life was schoolwork, sports, hanging out with friends and spending time with family. Then I discovered my superpowers and a secret identity.

With media attention to gun violence in Newark, Chicago, Philadelphia and other urban communities beginning to increase, ABC News this week ran a story about a new program in the emergency room, created by a trauma surgeon, that is less about medicine than it is about bearing witness.

On Sunday the Washington Post published an op-ed by the director of the trauma unit at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

One afternoon in mid-June, Jack Connors called and asked if I would like to take a ride to see his camp -- Camp Harbor View on Long Island in Boston Harbor.

July 23 of this year marks the 40th anniversary of arguably the worst riot in U.S. history. Early in the morning on Sunday, July 23, 1967 I saw billowing black smoke in the sky over much of the Detroit landscape from my apartment window.

I read an article on Saturday that is, without question, one of the most disturbing I've read in many years. New York Times op-ed columnist Bob Herbert wrote that the number of Chicago public school children killed since the start of the most recent school year as a result of gang or random violence has reached 34.

New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO) was created in 2006 to provide public schools, with an emphasis on charter schools, with the support they need in order to succeed in the new world of New Orleans public education.

As part of the LearnServe program, today I was privileged to visit the David Kaunda National Technical High School (named for the father of modern Zambia) in Lusaka, Zambia.

The Academy of Achievement's purpose is to connect graduate students from 40 countries around the world to "leaders, thinkers and pioneers."

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Doris Votier demonstrated the great courage and leadership of which ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances are capable.

What was billed as a rededication was more like a revival, as the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology opened its doors on June 11, the first school to re-open in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans.

Who will be the last dropout? The last American youth who doesn't make it through our public school system? Will it be Marcy? She lives with her mother, her grandmother, and her three siblings in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

This past week, the political establishment has been obsessing over who "won" and who "lost" stage one of the so-called "money primary." But the first incumbent-free presidential election in 55 years should first and foremost be about ideas and leadership.

Recently I was asked to write a letter about the work of Parker J. Palmer and I thought that work might be of interest to readers of Sharing Witness. I first met Parker in March 1990 at a week-long retreat he facilitated for a small group of Kellogg National Fellows in Taos, New Mexico. We connected deeply on that occasion, and we have remained close since.

Last month, a group of over 600 educators from 260 colleges, universities and other organizations met in San Francisco for a conference entitled "Uncovering the Heart of Higher Education: Integrative Learning for Compassionate Action in an Interconnected World." Sponsored by the Fetzer Institute and the California Institute of Integral Studies, the meeting is described on a website with the url: www.heartofeducation.org.

The New York Times Magazine's Paul Tough examined schools with strong evidence of success in closing the race and class gaps in school performance in What It Takes To Make a Student (December 17, 2006).

The U.S. Department of Education's No Child Left Behind Act paints a picture of our education system that resembles a triangle with only two sides.

I recently returned from my second trip to Haiti in the past 9 months and I can't wait to return! While it is nearly impossible to find an encouraging word about Haiti in the U.S. press, I found plenty to celebrate at Wings of Hope, a school and community for children with severe special needs in Fermathe, Haiti.

I started YouthBuild years ago because I had heard clearly from young people in East Harlem that they wanted to make a difference, rebuild their own communities, and help their neighbors. They told me that one day we would spread love around the world. In Gulfport, Miss., I am watching their vision come to life.

America is suffering from a silent dropout epidemic. One of the most extensive surveys ever of American high school dropouts gives a new perspective on the epidemic at a time when education is at the forefront of state and national policy debates, and increasingly vital to the nation's future success. The alarming statistics are a national disgrace because we know this problem is largely solvable.

On October 17, 2006, the board of Venture Philanthropy Partners was privileged to host Patty Stonesifer, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in a special event for VPP founding investors, new supporters, friends, board members, and team. Patty, joined by her colleague Allan Golston, President, US Program, candidly shared what she has learned as the foundation has stepped up its efforts to reduce inequities in the United States and around the world.

When Metairie, Louisiana redrew the school district lines, Robert Ingram was thrust into a new world. At age eight, Ingram left his comfortable neighborhood and entered a school on the other side of the tracks. Here many of his new classmates arrived with crayon boxes half empty, book bags in tatters - and these were the fortunate ones. Robert first encounter with poverty was tangible and untenable. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, he decided to do something.

Driven by mounting globalization and the dissemination and more efficient use of information technology, knowledge-based industries have replaced manufacturing as the United States' primary economic engine. The emergence of the "New Economy" during the 1990s led to a period of increased productivity, extended growth, and low unemployment. Although such growth typically provides a foundation for increased wages and broadly improved living standards, the recent economic expansion has failed to do so.

It’s been nearly two months since the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina brought the spotlight back to New Orleans. But as it always and inevitably does, the spotlight moved on and most of the country today hears little about New Orleans in the news. Yesterday as more than 300 attendees to Share Our Strength’s Conference of Leaders began to arrive, we had the opportunity to bear witness to the region’s ongoing challenges and opportunities.

I’ve only had one job where I had one good idea. My one idea, the web site DonorsChoose.org, began six years ago in the teachers’ lunchroom at a public high school in the central Bronx. My colleagues and I often talked over lunch about books our students should read, field trips that could bring subject matter to life, or art supplies needed for a project.

Do children who lack adequate food, clothing, and shelter need art supplies, cameras, or musical instruments? Where does inspiring kids to write poetry, to dance, or to paint rank on the hierarchy of human need? These are common questions asked by good people – philanthropists and activists both – concerned with helping to ameliorate the many and complex challenges facing families living in poverty.

A report released by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education says that the United States has fallen behind other nations in the race to educate its young adults and workers. In addition, college affordability continues to grow further out of reach for most American students and their families. The report warns that as the well-educated baby boom generation begins to retire, the US could experience a drop-off in college trained workers just as the rest of the world is beginning to surpass the US in higher education.

Read the report:Measuring Up 2006: The National Report Card on Higher Education