In India every teacher knows the Gandhian definition: « By education, I mean an all-round drawing of the best in child and man in body, mind and spirit ». But in such a multilingual and multiethnic country where technological advancement does not reduce social inequalities, everybody generally thinks of education as literacy and professional training.

In the parish school where I teach I look at the parents (Christians and non-Christians) who accompany their children, they are coming from a modest social condition and aspire to make a qualitative leap through the education of their children. I have seen, for instance, workers with a minimum income but eager for their children to become great, similar to the characters from the television fictions. They have a lot of expectations, but as teachers, we have to aim even higher to train these children . As Gandhi says, to get the best out of the child from the physical, mental and spiritual point of view.

Sensitivity to the common good and respect for the environment are an important aspect of integral education and we start to train this to our young children in the School. In my initial days in this new school I noticed that after the snack break the three monitors had a great job to do which was to collect the trash that the children had thrown on the ground after consuming snacks. The next day I recommended the use of the bins and made the announcement on the speaker. The situation has improved but not much. Then, during teachers meeting, we made plans to encourage children to keep the class and school clean, setting up a score for the best classes.

So now some children, especially those of the third and fourth grade, are very cautious. They look around to see if there is trash and put it in the bin, this is just to win my appreciation and a smile. I feel it is easy to educate children like this as in the future they will grow up to practice a good civic sense keeping in mind the common good. This is currently a big challenge in India, where the waste management and the fight against pollution are a matter of extreme urgency.

Even small lights are important for a more beautiful world.