An Ohio school put a mic in the hallway. What teens shared renewed everyone’s faith in the next generation

Community and family are some of the things you can always count on when your back is against the wall. Support is something you can always remember during weekends you got to spend with family. The Monroe Local Schools district in Ohio just found a unique way to spread that feeling to students still in school through Instagram.

When you’re an adult, one of the first facts of adolescence you conveniently forget is that even if you went to a good school, you still probably didn’t like school. It was too awkward, too unpredictable, just all-round nerve-wracking. And it’s the case for everyone in school — yes, even the bullies. So you can’t exactly expect shared experience to automatically create a sort of camaraderie around campus.

This small district in Ohio set up a microphone and a camera in a school hallway. No announcement, no explanation. The only clue the students had to go with was a prompt stuck on a small piece of paper on the microphone, written “Tell me something good today.” Even staff of the school district admitted that at first they didn’t see what it could become. They just wanted to do something good for their community.

At first, a few of the kids would approach the mic and say something small about their morning. But suddenly the few would grow into a lot. An entire line down the hallway. Furthermore, the students weren’t just saying small quips. They started showing just how astute they are when it comes to their emotions.

A student shared how happy they got being complimented about their hair. Another marked the exact day she made a potentially lifelong friend thanks to her talking to the new girl at school. One boy just got his first girlfriend. And now every time they post on Instagram, these reels by a few kids in Ohio joins a nation despite all the divisive narratives that float on that very social media platform.

Nowadays their videos getting 500,000 likes is not a surprise. The most heartwarming part of this story is that there has long been a public nuisance narrative about teenagers having unrestrictive access to all the internet has to share. We’ve seen that lead to such intense bullying of children that some ended up taking their own lives. There have been other cases of kids using ChatGPT as their pathway into juvenile crime. Some even ask the AI chatbot to help plan a faux kidnapping.

But the thing about just the general human capacity for empathy is that it can never be hidden effectively. The internet can almost seem to be designed for stories that induce rage, but something about seeing other people just show normal social behavior will stick out.

As families across America enjoy their Thanksgiving weekend, this has been the perfect story to join them. We all are going through small happy things or big sad events. Listening to each other will make us feel like we might just make it through. It certainly also helps if it’s family that’s listening.