Focus Your School On 'Focus The Nation'

Assign the color green to January 31, 2008 on your Google calendar: That's the date for "Focus The Nation".

Think of it as a teach-in on global warming. The non-profit group behind "Focus The Nation" says it has already signed up more than 1,100 colleges and universities across the U.S., as well as high schools and middle schools. The idea is to drop every other subject for the day, and spend 24 hours brainstorming about environmental change. Here's how it will play out at one school, Alfred University in upstate New York: There will be a panel discussion on global warming solutions, an art and essay contest (on recycled paper) and a screening of "The 11th Hour", the environmental movie narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. Alfred offers a major and minor in environmental studies for undergraduates.

To find out whether your school is already "focused", check here. If it hasn't yet pulled together an agenda, don't despair. The Web site for "Focus The Nation" has a model of how the day could be structured, and offers a way to sign up for a Webcast called "The 2% Solution". That's a reference to how much we need to cut emissions levels per year for the next 40 years to hold global warming to a minimum.

It's going to be interesting to see what comes from a day of collective brainpower.