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They switched off ceiling fans when they left a room, to prevent wastage of electricity.They talked to little children who sometimes, out of fun, scraped desks and chairs withblades or pen-knives. They repaired torn notice-boards. They organised the propercollection of garbage outside the school gate by helping the municipal man whenever hecame. Then they went to every house in the locality near the school and handed outleaflets they had prepared, urging people to care for public property, TO keep roads clean,to care for trees and not cut them down, and so on. In some houses they were receivedwell and the people praised them for their work. In other houses the people were quitecold and closed their doors. They learnt to take both praise and blame without any fuss.And as they did their best they learnt one great secret — you have to respect propertyyourself if you want others to do so.Do you think this is also part of education or would you consider it a waste of time?Discuss the whole question in class. If you think this is important will you start observingwhat is happening around you, in your-school, at home and in your locality? Will youhelp your younger brother or sister do likewise?23. Caring for the EnvironmentTheir headmaster was young and energetic and had what one would call “a modernmind”. He was very contemporary and was actively aware of new discoveries and trendsin the various fields of scientific enquiry. He was a passionate environmentalist and hispupils were a lively, vivacious group. The headmaster believed that his pupils should beexposed to good minds and often invited specialists to talk to the senior classes. Theschool had recently become a member of the newly formed Environmental Society in thecity. They had also completed a project on ecology and on that day, a talk was scheduledon ‘Caring for the Environment’ by a well known scholar.It so happened that it was the second day of the Third Test Match between India andEngland. Kapildev was leading the team and the match was being played at Calcutta. Theboys had their ears glued to a transistor that one of them had brought to the school andthe expression on their faces, expressed their excitement and interest. Amarnath was out,Ravi Shastri was batting at forty-eight and Gasvaskar was not out at eighty-six. Theywere anticipating the thrill of Gavaskar’s century. It was at this point, their own schoolhero, cricket captain Raghu rounded them all up. Reluctantly they trooped in, one or twoof them openly muttering, a few others kicking at pebbles on the path, to work out theirannoyance. A few listened to Raghu who explained: “We have a guest speaker. We haveto show him respect after all. He has come all the way to speak to us”.The lecturer was a young man with a very pleasant face and keen eyes. Hecommenced, by apologising profusely that he had agreed to speak on a day when theyought to be listening to the cricket commentary! He confessed that he was also interestedin Sunil Gavaskar’s century. So disarming was he, that ail their resistance was broken atonce.He made the lecture so interesting that soon, the entire lot of students were movingwith him, following his explanation, deeply absorbed. His theme was EnvironmentalHazards’. He spoke of how man was deeply related to the earth and to his environment.Man is not an isolated being. He has need for air, water and earth. They are the resources