Batman gets a new agenda, and glasses

Monday night's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart hosted Bill Gates in a dialogue that, while focusing on how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aims to eradicate polio around the world, also praised Bill Gates for his efforts to reform education in the United States.

Stewart closed the show by quipping that Bill Gates is the new Batman, out to save the world. Bill Gates acknowledged that the next focus of the Gates Foundation after instituting the polio vaccine in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India will be personalizing the educational system in his home country. Gates wants to give teachers the tools they need to ensure success in the classroom, he stated during the interview. Education is the first step toward eliminating poverty - also evidenced by Greg Mortenson's work in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the Three Cups of Tea campaign. Educating one woman, Mortenson claims from experience in his novel Three Cups of Tea, can change an entire community.

Gates's new focus successfully underscores the spread of the anti-poverty, pro-education campaign worldwide. If Gates is the new Batman, hopefully the United States can begin to eliminate poverty and crime, replacing drug cartels with schools and drug dealers with educators. Take a look at the interview here:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-31-2011/bill-gates

Passionate about education? Want to look and act like Batman? Come join the conversation at the Tutorpedia Foundation's 2nd Annual Benefit on February 23rd at the Minna Gallery in San Francisco. Take part in a dialogue along with Vicki Abeles, director of Race to Nowhere, Dennis Littky, co-founder of the charter school network Big Picture Learning, and Farb Nivi, founder of the revolutionary education tech company Grockit. Proceeds will fund one-on-one tutoring for the Bay Area's under-served students.