Three years ago, I walked into my first public school teaching assignment, in a middle school a mile west of downtown Atlanta. Next Thursday, I'm leaving that school.

It's been at least as much an education for me as it has been for my kids there. I meant to stay longer - I'm leaving because I can't deal with the "leadership through fear" philosophy and tactics of the administration - and I'm disappointed that I haven't been able to do more than I have. I have, though, gotten some perspective on what it means to be truly poor (not the perspective equals understanding) and on how we do education in America.

The kids I've come to know deal with some mind-wrenching violence, including a lot of sexual violence, in their everyday lives. They bring that to school, just as any child brings what she knows in the rest of her life to school. Given the baggage they're given at birth to carry, I've long since stopped wondering why we get sixth graders who don't know their times tables.

If we want to *truly* raise all boats, to *truly* educate all children and give them a chance, the battle has to start long before they ever hit the school door. Is a populist, focus-on-poverty stance risky? We can't afford not to risk it.