CandysDirt.com Readers Fund Miracles, Hope

Last Sunday sucked. I pushed save on my story about the Dallas ISD school board meeting for Monday morning and sat, staring at my computer feeling surly. I may have ranted to a few people.

As I watched my Facebook and Twitter feeds light up with hot sports takes and recrimination, I realized that I was tired of writing and reading about the negative. And I could tell that everyone else was, too.

I mean, not for nothing, but I just watched three different networks tweet video of some kids standing in the rain to lower the flag. I think we all are feeling around for something bright, shiny, and heartwarming.

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t talk about what happened at the school board meeting, and how the Texas legislature continues to disrespect our educators by refusing to adequately fund public education.

But let me tell you about something that’s been whispering in my ear every day for months, and how it drove me to write what I did on Wednesday.

A year ago, I had a chance to go to an education conference hosted by the International Positive Education Network. I sat and listened to a speaker, Michelle Gielan, who proceeded to talk for about half an hour and totally save my sanity as a journalist.

Gielan’s book, Broadcasting Happiness, is my go-to reference for mental health in an era of bad news inundation. Gielan, who is a former broadcast news journalist, tired of covering news under the premise of that if it bleeds, it leads.

So she proposed that for every negative story, for one week her station would pair it with a positive one. Stories about the mortgage crisis were paired with stories about the resources and help out there, or about two estranged brothers at the cusp of losing both their abodes, who made amends and saved one home — where they both live.

You don’t avoid bad news. You can’t make good decisions without all the information — good news or bad. But you can change how powerless it can make you feel.

And that’s what Gielan discovered. People can take the bad news if there’s a path, something that they can grab onto and be in control.

And Wednesday I just wanted the conversation to change to something productive. We were all feeling a little powerless, I think. We all wanted a reason to refocus.

I know I did.

And this, the act of broadcasting the needs of Dallas ISD teachers in hopes that their classrooms would be the learning environment our students deserve, has done that in some measure, I think. As the clock began ticking on the first 24 hours of the campaign, I watched it happen. It wasn’t about who voted which way and who did what to who and why.

It was about a shared goal. It was about, finally, teachers and students. It was about classrooms, not a school board horseshoe.

It was a powerful testament to the fact that for all that divides us on how to get where we want to be — and what that should look like, we all agree that we appreciate our teachers, we admire the adversity our students overcome just to walk into their schools each day, and we are willing to put our money toward showing that.

I hope that our local state legislators take note of this grassroots effort. I hope that our governor and lieutenant governor will. But even if they don’t, I think we’ve proven our point.

We’ve raised approximately $8,500 and fully funded 27 campaigns so far. I got to tell one set of second-grade teachers in person. I faithfully wrote each teacher as their campaign was funded to thank them personally for putting so much effort into their work, and to congratulate them.

I hope we will continue to do keep the momentum going.

And that is why I’m pleased to announce our next step. Each week, I will highlight the campaign of one teacher at Dallas ISD, and what funding this campaign will mean to her class. We’ll keep that list from Wednesday going and updated, too — if nothing else than because I want to be able to click on that link, look at the magic we all made, and know that whatever bad news I have to report, I have proof we all care and are united a lot more about our Dallas schools than we think.

Thank you, dear readers. You’ve not just given teachers needed materials — you’ve also given us all a lot more hope.