The women swoon and the men admire the vast musical talents on display when John Legend plies his trade on the piano, but with his latest project, the Philadelphia native is showing himself to be a great humanitarian, too.

Legend, 31, worked with documentary director Davis Guggenheim, who won an Academy Award for his global warming documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth,' for the new film 'Waiting for Superman.' It examines innovative efforts to reform schools in several cities, such as Washington, D.C., Harlem and Los Angeles.

On working with Guggenheim, Legend said:

"We were going to meet with Davis to see if he wanted to direct it," Legend said. "When my manager met with him, he was like, `Uh, I'm already making this film. This film you're talking about, I'm already making it, and it'll be done in three months.'"

'Waiting for Superman' looks at how schools' state and federal regulations -- along with teachers' tenure tracks -- make it difficult for bad teachers to be given the boot. The film also underscores how many kids have their entire futures resting on lotteries that decide whether they get in to a good school or "dropout factories."

Legend adds:

"They [the students] are in circumstances where they are surrounded by failing public schools, and they see the light, they see a few schools in their area that are succeeding. But you have to win a lottery to get in to these schools. ... When you think about someone's fate being decided by a lottery, the choice is usually ... `am I going to end up at a school with a super-high dropout rate and end up like a lot of those kids who drop out, in the criminal-justice system, working a low-wage job, or am I going to get a good education and go to college and make something of myself?'"

Legend wrote a song 'Shine' that plays in the closing credits of the film. 'Superman' debuted at the Sundance film festival this past weekend and has been picked up by Paramount Vantage for theatrical release.