Starting Young—St. Theresa’s High School, Bandra


12th August 2011

Common sense and conviction are the foundations of caring for the environment—this is what we learned from our session at St. Theresa’s High School, Bandra. Since many of the Nature Club members are very young students from the 5th and 6th standards, we were not too sure whether ideas like ‘environment’, ‘conservation’ and ‘responsibility’ would make sense to them

But we were in for a surprise! The children responded to the session with the simple idea that since the Earth is our home, we depend on it and we must take care of it. They insisted that none of them want to merely complain about the state of the environment; rather, they want to do something to improve it.

The students stressed the fact that besides problems that need to be solved, the environment also comprises many assets that should be improved and protected. This led us to discuss the possible ways of making an environment map of the school and its surroundings, and the ways in which to identify the most important issues.

We were also impressed by the enthusiasm of the teachers—this was the only session in which we’ve had 5 teachers in attendance! The entire experience left us convinced that this school, by starting young, is on its way to creating environmentally conscious citizens.

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