Teaching and Learning X

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news . . . 

 - From Isaiah 52

It should mostly be about good news.

The point of education, of learning, and of teaching, should be to get to the good news.

But our generation is obsessed with bad news. Here, I will take a break from my writing . . . and go check my Facebook newsfeed. When I return, I will give you the good news/bad news breakdown. For purposes of simplicity . . . anything that is not bad news, will be labeled as "good news." A neutral item will be "good news."

I'll be right back . . . 

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Before giving you my tally, I should note that I counted political posts as "bad news." Whether or not I agreed with the political sentiment, I counted it as "bad news." Politics will anger half the people, and agitate those that agree. It's bad.

I came up with twenty-three "good" posts, and twenty-two "bad" posts. The bad posts included one that had to do with a network marketing program. This is stressful to people. They are not pleased to see such.

I also included in the "bad" list, a couple of click-bait posts, that have to do with things like Hollywood stars that got in trouble with the law. That's bad news. It's publicly shaming people, when the proper thing to do is to leave them alone. 

Bad news is easy. We're drawn to it. I don't know why we are. We just are. I've known only a handful of people that resisted bad news (in all of its forms, including gossip). One was my Great-Aunt Melissa Sullivan, of whom it was said "She never said a bad thing about anybody." Another is one of my nieces. When it turns to gossip, she quietly and graciously leaves the room.

It requires effort to stick to good news. Yet it yields a better outcome.

Our schools today, from kindergarten to doctoral programs,. are focused on the bad stuff. What's wrong with the world. What's wrong with us. What's wrong with you. What's wrong with them. What's wrong with it. (It's never, "What's wrong with me.") We get a steady chorus of how bad we are . . . how everything is our fault . . . how we are going to have to change. 

How is this good for anybody, or anything?

This is not to say that there isn't anything wrong. There is. There's plenty wrong. 

But our emphasis should be on the good stuff. The good stuff gives us insight into correcting the bad stuff.

We can't just give one group of kids reasons to be proud of who they are and where they came from . . . while tacitly teaching the other group of kids that they came from the group that caused all the trouble.

How is this good for anybody, or anything?

The Good News. The stuff that unites us. The philosophy that permits us to love, even to like . . . everybody. 

For whatever reason, we want to feel bad. We want to hate. And we feed those hungers. 

Let feed the good. Let's focus on that.