It wasn’t all bad
■■ An Indian village schoolteacher was awarded $1 million for promoting girls’ education in tribal communities. Ranjitsinh Disale learned their local language in order to translate textbooks, and he created a QR code for students at Zilla Parishad Primary School to access audio poems and video lectures. And if that’s not enough, he’s giving away half of his Global Teacher Prize reward to the other nine finalists. “They will get a chance to continue their work,” Disale said, “and we can reach out and lighten the lives of as many students as we can.”
■■ Tanja Babich’s 10-year-old daughter refused to wear her glasses during online school, afraid of what her classmates might think. So Babich, a morning news anchor for ABC7 Chicago, decided to wear her glasses every day for one week as a gesture of solidarity. She also put out a call for viewers to send in pictures of their children wearing spectacles, and they responded enthusiastically. “Whatever people say or think about you is none of your business,” Babich said on air. “Just be yourself, authentically and unapologetically.” Babich’s daughter now wears her own glasses, encouraged by the hundreds of photos of other kids wearing glasses with frames of every conceivable color and shape.
■■ In March, Jeff Gerson was admitted to New York City’s NYU Langone Tisch Hospital suffering from Covid-19. He was intubated the next day, and when he woke up a month later, Gerson had no recollection of his recovery, but still wanted to thank the heroes who saved his life. So he tracked down the names of all 116 doctors, nurses, and therapists by looking through his insurance records and treatment charts. Then, he sent a letter of thanks naming each one. Health-care workers “often go without appreciation,” Gerson said, “and the point of my letter was to give them the recognition that they’re due.”