How I Supported Underpaid Teachers on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and How You Can Help

Hey, I was in NYC last week because I was invited to be on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert alongside the Founders of Twitter, Russell Simmons, and others, like Charles Best of DonorsChoose.org, to show respect, as well as support for teachers.

The thing is, #respect4teachers is needed now more than ever. I teamed up with DonorsChoose.org to help facilitate the #BestSchoolDay.

Here's an overview of what happened: #BestSchoolDay was a call to action for people across America to support classrooms in need. DonorsChoose.org kicked off #BestSchoolDay with a philanthropic flashmob of entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, and philanthropists who funded every single classroom request that teachers in communities across the U.S. posted on the site.

I'm personally funded all of New Jersey, and at my suggestion craigslist funded Detroit. The thing is, I spent 10 years of my life in Detroit as a programmer, and after a decade, well, I had a small fraction of a clue what the deal was there. Detroit's an important part of my history. And so, I wanted to help.

Also, important to note that I’m a ’50s-style nerd, grew up in Morristown, NJ, playing in one of the neighborhood junkyards. Please take that literally. I only recently realized that my family had been hovering between poverty and lower middle class.

We need to get behind our teachers-in-need, and access the power and potential of online communities (organized via flashfunding/crowdsourcing initiatives and otherwise) to get stuff done.

Having the supplies to teach should be a fundamental right. It's our job to give back to the people who are educating generation after generation.

You can still give back and help make every day the #BestSchoolDay. Also, if you missed it, check out what we talked about on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert...

#respect4teachers