Have you ever experienced one of those moments that feels like the world is falling apart? One day in history class, my teacher told us that we would take a quick quiz, nothing graded, just a few questions about today’s world. Easy enough, I thought. All of a sudden, I see the first question, “How many girls in low-income countries complete primary school?” I began to panic a little. The next questions asked things like, “How has extreme poverty changed in the past 20 years?” and “How many of the world’s children are vaccinated?” I didn’t know all the answers, but I was sure the results would be depressing. I walked in already expecting the worst, assuming every answer would demonstrate how messed up the world is. But when we checked our results, the numbers told a different story. At first, I thought extreme poverty had gotten worse, when instead it has nearly been cut in half. I also assumed only 50% of one-year-olds were vaccinated, when in reality it was around 80%. Poverty rates were lower, educational rates were higher, life expectancy was increasing, and so on. The world wasn’t perfect, but it was far more hopeful than we thought.

That moment stuck with me because it showed how much negativity we’ve gotten used to. The media continuously highlights problems, but seemingly ignores anything that is hopeful or getting better. It’s as if good things happen quietly in the background, while the bad things are i\n the spotlight. And once you start noticing that pattern, you realize it’s everywhere, even here, in our school.

Not long ago, we had assemblies regarding students leaving garbage on the bleachers or not cleaning our tables after lunch. Yes, there are people who don’t do those things. But, there are also lots of students who do clean up after themselves or who will go above and beyond, and pick up trash from others. Still, when the whole school gets scolded, that effort goes unseen. The messaging becomes one about the problem, not the progress. It is not that the school is in the wrong for caring about cleanliness, rather it’s that the system tends to highlight what’s bad more than what’s good.

We seem to fall into that same trap. When we only focus on the negative, we begin to think that is all there is. And, when we believe that, it takes away our motivation to try and actually improve things. For once, imagine if we celebrated improvements as loudly as we criticized mistakes, how much faster would things change? Progress starts when we notice it, when we give it the attention it deserves. Acknowledging progress does not mean we ignore problems, it means we recognize the whole story. The truth is, progress deserves to be honored and talked about just as much, if not more, than something that is imperfect. Whether it’s global poverty or school bleachers, seeing the good isn’t about being naive, it’s about being fair. Change doesn’t start with criticism, it starts with the courage to see what’s getting better and to keep it going.

(Curious about the quiz we took? You can try it yourself at https://factfulnessquiz.com)

Image: Violet Trajtenberg