After five hours of sleep (I stayed up until 2 am going through my notes on "major innovations in education," which I ended up not using during the panel anyhow), a morning wake-up call (I still don't know why we respect the hotel wake up call more than our home alarm clocks), a quick shower (20 minutes), and a blueberry scone (needs no explanation), I was delighted to meet and talk with the fifteen participants of SEF's "Education Summer".

The students -- many of them college seniors and the rest just entering grad school -- were smart, fun, and passionate about improving educational opportunity for America's youth. To me, the best moment of our two hour conversation about different policy proposals and current trends in education reform was when a student at Spelman college, Lishaun Francis, made a critical point about the group of us gathered in the room: "We are not the only ones who woke up one morning and decided it might be good to do something about education in this country. There are plenty of others just like us, and we have to work together with them if we want to make a difference."

How true that is. One of the hardest lessons--but most important ones--that I've learned this past year is that we at Our Education are far from being "alone" at this business. There are thousands of other students, parents, educators, reformers, and activists who have fought for--and in case, won--major improvements for young people and their schools.

And that makes the work that all of us are doing together even that much more important. Because if we can create a big enough splash and show elected officials that young people are willing to stand up and mobilize, repeatedly if necessary, to get the kinds of schools we need, then that will help all the others who are in the field be that much more effective in their own pursuits. Think about it this way: the student voice is like a critical piece of fence that is needed to close in this education problem. Without it, the fence will never be completed... but even with it, we need the other key pieces of the fence as well!