Famed children’s television personality, Fred Rogers, once remarked that, “The media shows the tiniest percentage of what people do. There are millions and millions of people doing wonderful things all over the world, and they’re generally not the ones being touted in the news.”
Sadly this practice seems to have trickled down to our own existence. We spend so much of our time focused on the challenges and struggles we face in life, that we often overlook that which deserves our gratitude and praise.
This applies to our personal relationships, our occupations and yes, even in our schools.
The educational system of today is constantly in the headlines – often used as the scapegoat for a host of issues plaguing youngsters today from low test scores, to bullying to even childhood obesity.
For schools to continually dispute one overdramatized storyline after another is tiring, petty and trite in a world more concerned with dominance and power, than doing what’s right for the whole.
But amongst all the propaganda, did you ever stop to ask for the facts? The positive and encouraging stories, which are far too often overshadowed by those who continually tell us what’s wrong in the system, rather than what’s right.
Let me be the first to say that our system is not perfect – what part of life is?
But there are “people doing wonderful things” in many classrooms across this country, and sadly they are overlooked in favor of tabloid-like headlines geared to anger the public instead of uniting them.
So the next time you hear someone spewing out the “bad news” about our schools remind them of the disservice they are doing to the community by also not touting what’s good.
