In my office, I have a framed letter from a couple of children I have never met. The letter holds a special significance for me. It reads, “Dear Dr. Brown, thanks for teaching Mr. Wills to teach Tisha and Kelly.” Mr. Wills is Jeremy Wills, and (a) he is one of my former students. A few years back, he took my positive psychology class in college.

Before long, the reality hit Jeremy hard. Even after spending many hours each day preparing lesson plans, it became clear that his methods were not working. One of the worst moments was when (b) he distributed a math test. Many students didn’t even look at the exam. They just put their heads on their desks and slept. Jeremy became so stressed that he even dreaded going into his classroom.

After graduation, Jeremy joined an organization that recruits future leaders to teach in low-income communities. (c) He was assigned to a small school in a poor rural county in North Carolina. Later, his assistant principal took note of Jeremy’s high expectations and asked him to take over (d) his math class. He took charge of about a dozen failing “special ed” kids, and Tisha and Kelly were among them. His idealism ran high, and he thought he would be able to magically fix all of their problems.

Jeremy knew something had to change. (e) He then thought back to my class, remembering how negative emotions can drag you down, leaving positive emotions unnoticed. That’s when he decided to focus more on building positive attitudes within the classroom. He borrowed lessons from my positive psychology class and even mentioned my name to his students. As the students’ attitudes became more optimistic, their confidence with math grew too. At the end of the school year, 80 percent of Jeremy’s students passed the state’s math test.