Driving to the office this morning, I heard several education experts being interviewed on the radio about the 2023 matric results. The first interviewee was a prof from Wits University and, despite the improvement in the matric pass and exemption rates, I expected that he would highlight various shortcomings in our education policy, or point out that the figures don't actually reflect the real state of our education system. On the contrary, he was very upbeat. He recognised some of the challenges being addressed, but was so positive about the progress that has been made in most of our schools over the last 30 years. He said we are on a hopeful trajectory.

It made me stop and wonder why I cynically expected bad news about our schools. It reminded me that I really do need to be vigilant about the way that a diet of negative news forms me. After all, as you know, the media feeds off of what psychologists call our "negativity bias" - our tendency to be drawn to bad news.

St Paul offers an alternative way - he invites us in his letter to the Philippians to be people who very deliberately turn our minds to good news. We can expect to live more hopefully if we take his advice: "my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable." (Philippians 4:8)