Africa Goes Online
How much change will the Internet bring to Africa? The potential is staggering, the number of users is growing and slowly but surely, a continent hungry for information is beginning to find ways to get what it needs.

Also: AOL African Style

Looking Back, Facing Forward: One Reporter’s
View of the Balkans
The balance between war and peace in the Balkans seems to change every day, but what remains constant is the desire of people in the region to live “a normal life”in the way that most Europeans and Americans would define it. ABC NewsÌ Dave Marash reports.

Also: Stephen J. Del Rosso an interview

Meeting the Challenge of the Urban High School
Students attending high school in the year 2001 are being educated by a system created at the beginning of the last century to serve a society that had a vastly different social and economic structure. IsnÌt it time that schools were redesigned to better prepare kids for the world of todayÛand tomorrow?

Also: Turnaround High School

Also: Whole-District School Reform

Youth Vote 2000: TheyÌd Rather Volunteer
Young Americans of voting age are increasingly engaged with creating change on both a local and national level, working as volunteers and activists on issues ranging from social justice to the environment. The one civic duty they seem to shy away from, though, is going to the polls.

Also: Foundations Working for Youth Participation in Politics

Also: The Youth Vote Defining the Problem and Possible Solutions

Foundation Roundup
From a study of racial disparity in the juvenile justice system to an innovative program for funding the arts, foundations around the United States continue to support social change in the community, the country and the world.

Also: NewBooks

the BackPage
No Child Left Behind by Dr. Roderick R. Paige
The new U.S. Secretary of Education is passionate about urban school reform. In this essay, Dr. Paige, who was previously superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, expresses his belief about how lessons learned at the local and state level can inform federal education policy as well.

a footnote to History
Andrew Carnegie and his intended bride, Louise Whitfield, signed an unusual and endearing prenuptial agreement in which the steel magnate and his soon-to-be wife declared their intentions to devote the bulk of his wealth to the public good, precluding any future arguments about the disposition of what amounted to a great fortune. The document was signed on April 22, 1887, the same day that the Carnegies were married.