In American popular culture, the word "rural" invokes images of sunny farms and little red schoolhouses--while "urban" means drugs, poverty, and crime. But those who know the reality of both worlds will say that rural schools face many of the same challenges as their urban counterparts. The problems of rural schools are often invisible to the public and policymakers. The solutions, however, may be found in the communities themselves. Rural advocates say to change both the policy and the pedagogy, there is a need to recognize each rural community's vast potential. Southern Echo director Leroy Johnson said part of the equation is to get students to start looking seriously at what it means to live in a rural place. They have questions about the world around them, and that's a place to start teaching. Southern Echo uses the methods of grassroots community organizing to get rural residents active on the issues that matter to them--and to teach the basics of science and social studies.