Positive Good News Stories

Laughter is the Best Teacher.

How humor and history go together in this classroom.

Miss Arbury teaches history at the local high school. On the excitement scale, learning history for most kids sits somewhere between math and art. A few cool things and lots of facts to memorize. And yet Miss Arbury’s classes have been the favorites at her school for over two decades. Read Story

Sometimes, Quiet Listening has the Power to Save a Life

For most of us, teaching seventh-grade English would be akin to an eternal assignment teaching flying monkeys to sit still. Just thinking about it, we might feel Dorothy’s terror at being carried away. But not for Miss Smith. Read Story

The Simplest Word in our Language Can be the Most Inclusive

Junior high school can be a punishing place. It’s where extroverts thrive, introverts are pushed aside and class distinctions are sharply defined as adolescents try to find a place to belong. Read Story

How One Life Can Change a World

On the choppy waters of the Bay of Bengal, somewhere between Rangoon and the northeast coast of India, a ship packed with migrant workers returns to Andhra Pradesh. One of the workers stares out at the waves and has a dream about the 2-year-old son he hasn’t seen since birth. The dream is filled with colors—and promise. Read Story

Extending a Hand Even During Personal Struggle

For years, Arthur ran a car dealership in a small town on the edge of the Australian Outback. The lot was full of the kind of vehicles that could take you into a stark landscape, and at night, the sky overhead blossomed with stars, anchored by the Southern Cross. Read Story

The Life and Influence of John James Audubon

Before photography, the natural world was captured in paintings and sketches by artists like John Audubon, whose remarkable illustrations of birds have endured for 200 years. One of his contemporaries remarked that Audubon’s work “represented the passions and feelings of the birds,” something photography could not do. Read Story

Mary Anderson, the Woman who Invented the Windshield Wiper

Sometimes it just takes looking at things a little differently in order to solve a problem. Sometimes we don’t even realize there is a problem until we ask questions that begin with why? Read Story

The Legacy of Dorothy Vaughan.

The Hidden Figure who Helped Put a man on the Moon.

Dorothy Vaughan was born in Kansas City, Missouri, just 45 years after the Civil War ended. At times, her load must have felt heavy, earthbound, during a time when African American women questioned how they would move beyond the barriers they faced. Read Story

How Kids Have Used Their Imagination to Create Some of the Most Beloved Products

We always talk about the beauty of a child’s unlimited imagination, as if we long to capture and access those curiosities into our adulthood. It is indeed a wonder what children come up with. And maybe if we practice seeing the world through their eyes, we might see the world differently ourselves---one of endless possibilities. So here are a few things born of childhood curiosity. Read Story

The Power of Just Being There

Bill is a Navy vet and retired oil field engineer. His hands are thick, and his fingers branch out in all directions. Pulling on ropes as a sailor off the coast of Maine gnarled a few of them. The others were jammed playing baseball in the South African semi-pro league. He has a story for every break, and for why he leans a bit starboard. Read Story

How a Community of One Grows to Include More

Richard is a quiet man with a gentleness that belies his height. He stands a good four inches over six feet but has a friendly-giant smile that embraces everyone around him. He makes a modest living that allows him time for a hobby he is passionate about---raising pigeons. Read Story

Believe in Others

Wrestling is the ultimate sport: One-on-one, you win or lose; it’s up to you. Which sounds a bit harsh to gangly high school boys trying to fit in socially as well as win a little respect on the mat. Read Story

Get Up Early and Give Back

On a Sunday morning so cold the only people on the streets are the unhoused, the Rev stands, wearing an apron, near the entrance to a warehouse. A line of people gathers outside the Reverend’s ministry. Read Story

Finding Slow Purpose in a Fast World

In quiet neighborhoods, you find quiet people going about their lives, doing good things. Harold is one of those people. An introvert by nature, he finds himself happiest while changing the brake pads on an old truck or replacing a water heater. Read Story

A tradition of kindness on the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail is a rugged footpath that runs from Northern Georgia to Central Maine along the crest of the Appalachian Mountains. It passes through 14 states and all kinds of unpredictable weather. At age 21, Nick, an avid outdoorsman raised in Maine, decided the journey would be a good adventure. Read Story