Inspired by Crew Mandela’s “What is going on the world?” session, we took the idea and made it our own!
We spent Wednesday morning exploring the BBC News website and reporting back on the stories that caught our eyes, as well as exploring how each story made us think and feel.
We noticed that the all but one of the stories we read and discussed were definitely bad news stories, the only exception being Noah’s excellent story choice about a determinedĀ African boy’s journey to the Artic.
We explored how the news stories and general headlines made us feel: Crew used words like ‘depressed’, ‘anxious’, ‘sad’, and ‘scared’. We left Crew thinking that only bad things were happening in the world and, whilst it’s important that we recognise that, we really needed to look for some good in the world!
So, for today, I set Crew the challenge of finding some good news stories to see what a difference it makes to read and discuss solely positive news articles.
Here’s a selection of our feel good stories, including our favourite about the Waving Granny!
After 12 Years of Waving to Students From Her Window, Watch Her Reaction to 400 Kids Saying Goodbye
The people who are trying to reunite a divided island
Dog receives 500 tennis balls for his birthday
Russia agrees to free 100 captive whales
Protesting climate change in Preston
Beavers are now protected in Scotland
Girl with backwards legs walks for the first time thanks to generosity of strangers
Louis Tomlinson helps Widower with his bucket list
World’s first plastic free supermarket opens in The Netherlands
We noticed that all these stories had several features in common, such as resilience, kindness and determination. They all inspired us in some way.
So, how did we feel after reporting back on today’s happy news? Happy, hopeful, and, as Brendan said, “optimistic for the future!”
I’m not saying that we should avoid or ignore everything bad that’s happening in the world. In fact, we discussed how keeping up-to-date with current affairsĀ makes us more aware of the world around us allowing us to form our own opinions and engage in well-informed conversations.Ā Thomas made a good point when he said that reading the bad news stories should actually make us think about how we could stop “things like that” happening again.
The purpose of this session was to experience what a difference it makes to see and read solely positive articles (which are a lot harder to find on mainstream media sites). We certainly left Crew in a more upbeat mood than the day before, eager to share our happy news!
Finally, I’m a big fan of The Happy NewspaperĀ – a quarterly publication that celebrates all thatās good in the world.Ā I can’t wait to share the next edition with Crew.