In education we often speak of outside factors that can contribute  to or hinder a child’s ability to learn. For example a child who is unable to see the chalkboard but their parents cannot afford to bring that child to the eye doctor. So, the child sits in the class and suffers. Then there is the child who fears the walk to school because of whatever violence surrounding their neighborhood.  And then there is poverty. Poverty which is the root of the above. It’s poverty that causes a child to come to school hungry each day and yet that child is still expected to learn and perform. I’ve heard plenty of stories of children who hoard food come Thursday knowing that it will have to last until Monday morning. School is too often the one place for a child to receive proper nutrition.

But poverty isn’t sexy. No one ever wants to talk about it. It's something that happens 'over there' not here. Unfortunately it happens everywhere. Hunger happens everywhere. 

This is why I’ve teamed up with The Mission List and World Food Program USA to participate in the  Live Below the Line challenge. I bet I know what you’re thinking because I had the same thoughts starting with 'will this really do anything about the problem of poverty?' No. My eating on $1.50 a day will not eradicate poverty but the idea is that if  those of us fortunate enough not to live below the poverty line chipped in just a little then a dent can be made. Attention will be brought to the problem. That attention will (hopefully) get people talking and we - as a global society - can continue to make those dents until children don't have to go to school hungry. 

That last part is my goal. It seems so basic to not have children starving while attempting to learn and yet very little is ever done about it. Budgets are cut, the funding for services aren’t there and I’m not even talking on a global level, I’m talking about kids 150 miles east of my current location in Upstate NY who are starving. I’m doing this because I want to bring attention to this problem and if it means living on yogurt and ramen all week then I’m up for the challenge.

What I've been eating

Why $1.50 per day:

The challenge is set at $1.50 a day, because this is the current equivalent of the accepted global figure used to define extreme poverty. This was set by the World bank as US$1.25 per day in 2005. Basically, if you live on less than that every day, you’re recognized internationally as living in extreme poverty. Want the full detail? Check it out below.

"It's not that bad," you might say - "$1.50 goes a lot further in developing countries". Unfortunately not. The $1.50 figure represents the amount someone living in extreme poverty in the U.S. would have to live on.

And for people who live in extreme poverty that $1.50 has to cover far more than food and drink - we're talking everything - health, housing, transport, food, education... It's impossible to imagine, but that’s the reality for an incredible number of people.

Gandhi said that "Poverty is the worst form of violence" - and we agree. We all feel and see the injustice of extreme poverty, whether it be directly in our neighborhoods or in countries far away, Live Below the Line is here to provide a platform that helps you do something about it.

Check out how the calculation works in detail on our blog.

The challenge?

Spend 5 days feeding yourself with $1.50 a day - the U.S. equivalent of the extreme poverty line.

The reason?

To give a glimpse into the lives of 1.4 billion people who have no choice but to live below the line every day – and who have to make $1.50 cover a lot more than food…

Live Below the Line is an initiative of the Global Poverty Project, an education and campaigning organization whose mission is to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action against extreme poverty.

The Global Poverty Project educates and motivates citizens to become effectively engaged in the movement to end extreme poverty, and is best known for its world-class multimedia presentation 1.4 Billion Reasons. This feature presentation has been seen by over 100,000 people since 2009 and is delivered in schools, businesses and communities around the globe.

We're passionate about equipping people to make a real difference in fighting poverty, and so we focus on connecting people up to the organizations and issues that have the biggest impact. We run Live Below the Line because we think that to really fight poverty, we've got to try to understand it – and the challenge provides a glimpse of what it is like to live on $1.50/day – a challenge that is faced by 1.4 billion people in our world today.

We've teamed up with some of the best U.S. charities that fight extreme poverty around the world and have provided you with the opportunity to support their work through personal sponsorship as you undertake Live Below the Line.

In 2013, Live Below the Line is running in the U.S., UK, and Australia simultaneously, with more than 20,000 people spending 5 days living below the line.To give a glimpse into the lives of 1.4 billion people who have no choice but to live below the line every day – and who have to make $1.50 cover a lot more than food...

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Let’s be honest I’m not experiencing true poverty. This morning when I thought I screwed up making rice I knew that I had pasta to fall back on. I have a car and new shoes to break in and a trip to California later this week. The irony of doing this challenge and preparing for a stay at the Ritz Carlton is not lost on me. It might seem like an insult to those who are living in poverty day to day for whom there is no luxury. For them this isn't a challenge that will end on Friday when they can gorge on overpriced sushi and a bottle of prosecco. I'm somewhat ashamed and yet it forces me to find out what more can be done. Does that make sense?  Even in the past 36 hours I have felt more aware of my great fortune and of my choices when it comes to food and what I am willing to commit to just so I can do my part.

So, will you join me? Will you see what this is about? And if you’re so inclined you can even donate. No pressure. Just be aware and bring attention. Can you do that?

Photo: Vogue.com"But it’s possible that in amassing circles of women and giving them simple empowering tools, she’s putting the infrastructure and players in place for a much more ambitious trophy than a seat in the corporate boardroom. Getting women to the highest echelons of business might be her idea of getting them to the starting line. After the women get the power, well, then she can really let loose." - Time Magazine, "Confidence Woman" by Belinda Luscombe

My first problem - of many - is that before I had a chance to so much as Google Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In”, I had already made up my mind about the whole thing. I heaped my complaint onto that of a colleague along with a sigh and an eyeroll. I am sick of hearing about Sheryl Sandberg. It’s fantastic that she gets to leave work at 5:30 PM each day to enjoy time with her family. Absolutely wonderful that she is the COO of Facebook and that she’s turned the social media conglomerate into what it is today.

Many claps for her.

So when I saw that once again she was being mentioned my gut reaction was to dismiss her after saying a few words about how great it is for her to have that choice that millions of other women do not have. How difficult it must be for her to discuss how women should and could get ahead from a place of supreme privilege. And don’t get me started on why there never seem to be any women of color - and we have our own workplace issues and obstacles to deal with - in the picture. It seems like the same story time after time of the white lady telling the rest of us how it is really done. And, for real, I am over it.

And then I Googled. I read the piece in Time. I went to the site. I changed my mind.

Not entirely, of course, but my defenses went down and I was able to operate from a place of thoughtfulness and intelligence as opposed to annoyance bordering on anger.

I grew up in a single parent household. My mother worked until well after six each night. Sometimes she made dinner, sometimes dinner was Burger King. If we were sick we had to stay in the nurses office until she was available usually not until after four. I remember in middle school she had a herniated disc that required her to be home for six weeks. For six whole weeks I had my mother at home after school and that was all that mattered. It was glorious. She traveled a lot. Sometimes we joined her in Manhattan or Orlando. Other times we were left home. She worked hard to provide for us: I ended up taking expensive AP courses my sophomore, junior and senior years of high school and then went to an expensive university in Washington, DC and then went abroad for six months. My brother went through college, law school and a year of watching Cash Cab on the couch while awaiting bar exam results. The point is that my mother wasn’t able to make the choices that Ms. Sandberg and other’s like her can make. She had to work because she had to support her children. She had to work so that one day her children would have options.

I have many options. I am a fortunate woman. I know that.

And despite my criticism towards the likes of upper middle class women who attempt to tell other women how to ‘do it all’, I must acknowledge the fashion in which Sheryl Sandberg is moving forward. And the movement she is attempting with LeanIn.org. As you know, I am a big proponent of women helping other women. I want to see women succeed. I want to see women be CEOs and be president of the United States. I want more women members of the House and of the Senate and I want for us to feel empowered not only to ‘lean in’ but to lean on one another. That is where Sandberg has it right; women need other women and our attitude towards ourselves and our positions force us to stay back. What Sheryl Sandberg advocates is to come together and learn from one another. The only way for women to get to the top is to do so together and, more importantly, to recognize the choices of others when doing so.

So, I can’t hate on her. I can’t even bring myself to sigh or roll my eyes. I can applaud her mission and suggest that she reminds others how fortunate so many women are and that we all are not equal but that is OK. But I can’t put her down or be angry or jealous. I can and am envious of her resources to start to get people to work together and share experiences. In fact- and here’s the surprise after my huffing and puffing this morning- Sheryl Sandberg makes me want to do the same.

2. To make you feel better here's a video of Michelle Obama dancing. You're welcome.

3. Next week? I'm gonna get my sequester on. Yay!

Official White House photo/Pete SouzaI have the unfortunate quality of feeling things really deeply. Instead of saying or thinking “oh, that’s sad” and moving on with my life I let whatever The Bad is consume me. It’s something I have been working on but after the events in Newtown, Connecticut, I cannot shake this feeling of dread. It’s that a person who was clearly depressed and had mental health issues - as evidenced by his Twitter postings - needed help and was unable to get the help he deserved.

It could be remembering being a child when the at the time of the Oklahoma city boming and I recall reading and hearing about the bombing and how the children in that day care center perished. I remember walking up to my mother’s room while she was watching the 11 o’clock news and asking if I, too, would die from decapitation. And I remember the difficulty of the conversation my mother had to have with her then 10 year old daughter.

It could be living in Washington during the fall of 2002 when two snipers terrorized the city.

And it could be the thought that schools are supposed to be a safe place, a first grade classroom full of primary colors, and that isn’t the case.

All of these things compounded in my mind make my already sensitive soul that much more delicate.

Over at Change in Action I wrote about the reality of the need for Congress to take a stand on how guns are sold and how ammunition is available to the public. I wrote it because unfortunately we need to be  realistic when it comes to getting meaningful legislation passed.  That doesn’t mean that it can’t or shouldn’t happen it just means that there is that much more work that needs to be done and this - passing effective legislation - is something that we all need to contribute to. As the uncle of Noah Pozner, a six year old killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School said, this isn’t just a political issue, it’s a human issue.

I’m often attracted to (then subsequently wary of) problems that are far bigger than I. Those problems that I want to do something to fix but know that just me and whatever meager resources I have are unable to make a real dent in whatever the problem du jour.  For example getting women to feel empowered to become politically engaged or informing at least one person on the state of education in this country. Have I completely alleviated the problems surrounding both? No. But one step from me, is at least one other person now having that awareness and so on and so forth thus creating

But as I said, this isn’t something that I can do alone though it would be kind of awesome if I was like, “I will now cure childhood hunger” and BOOM! Gone. So, I’m picking five people who I hope will join me in passing the cup to fight hunger: Heather Spohr, Kristen Howerton, Karen Walrond, Stacey Ferguson and Liz Gumbinner. Visit this page to learn more about WFP’s School Meals program, grab the badge and post about it, and ask 5 others to do the same.

*Sponsored by The Mission List and World Food Program, USA*

My stomach hurts when I look at photos of the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. The stories, the absolute devastation and decimation of cities a mere 100 miles away. Entire towns have been erased, Montauk is its own island and gas lines for hours only to realize that there is nothing left at the other end.

I think and hope that many others feel the same when looking at photos: helpless, saddened, wanting to do more and hoping or praying for people who have just lost everything to eventually get back on their feet.

I can say nothing more than to shake my head and say horrible.

Do I have a tendency to make almost anything political? I do. Can I do so in this situation? No. Lives are at stake and bodies are still being recovered from homes in my own state. By now I’m sure you’ve heard that on Tuesday (the days have all one big jumbled mess right now) President Obama and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie toured the coast. Or what was once a coast and is now half coast, half homes floating in the middle of the Atlantic. At the time I gave it no other thought than, I don’t know...that’s what a president does? His job - the job that he is currently up for again - is to be the leader of this country and being the leader of this country means that when tragedy strikes he needs to be able to have a handle on the situation, those who have been affected and do what he can because HE IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Full stop.

But that’s not what others saw:

I - the woman who loves politics from the bottom of my cold dark heart - didn’t even think that a sitting Governor thanking a sitting president for his assistance at one of the darkest times his state has ever seen could be viewed upon with such disdain. Such vitriol. Such hate. Simply because reaching across the political aisle is a sign of weakness. Working together as ONE COUNTRY is met with horror. Bridging the gap between right and left makes one a traitor.

I know that I’m not alone when I express my frustration towards the intense anger that this election has produced. I’m just so tired. Spent. Done. And this whole Christie/Obama genuine working relationship turned TRAITOR OMG!!!11!!! bullshit has put me over the edge.

Four days, folks. Four more days.

Tweets via Joe Mande

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New at Change In Action

I focus on women because we are a traditionally underrepresented group. Women also continue to lag behind men when it comes to most things political. While we make advances in medicine, law and other areas that were once traditionally ‘men only’, women continue to find difficulty entering politics.

Now that we've come to our second debate I expect less to be lulled to sleep by the dulcet tones of Candy Crowley but more oomph from the President. Come to think of it that's what the first debate lacked: President Obama being Presidential. Remember during the Democratic National Convention when he made his acceptance speech and pundits - of the armchair and CNN variety alike - oohed and ahhed over his speech? It was because he stood his ground and not only reaffirmed his commitment to his country and his job but that he not simply a candidate running for President but He *IS* the President, damn it!

My hope is that he takes charge this evening and leaves the pleasantries and politeness to the end of the evening.

My other hope - and God, this often seems like a tall order - is to hear more about education. I know that we get the same talk of Pell Grants and the President's Race to the Top program and his changed on teacher evaluations but is that really all? Is there nothing more to education? Which many would agree that there is. I continue to go back to the fact that education is the foundation of a successful society and while we can debate the economy, debt ceiling, deficit, sequestration* and jobs, why cannot there be a stronger discussion as to how education will greatly impact the future of this economy? People in poverty are there by unfortunate circumstance and it is education that can often pull them from the wreckage. The President is going to use tonight's debate to speak directly with the American people about his plans for moving the country forward. AS HE SHOULD. I just think that education needs to be a bigger part of that conversation as opposed to a talking point lopped on towards the end. But that's just me.

Below I've included video from both the President and Mitt Romney's appearances on NBC News' Education Nation. So tell me, there are three hours until this debate: What do you hope to see?

*I'll explain sequestration next week. Promise.

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Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy