Environmental Benefits of Planting Trees

Planting trees in your neighbourhood really is one of the best things we can do for the local environment and for the planet. Besides producing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide and contaminants from the air, trees have many other social and environmental benefits.

Trees are like the lungs of the planet. They purify the air and provide habitat for birds and other wildlife. Trees also help to reduce ozone levels in urban areas. Trees reduce urban runoff and erosion by storing water and breaking the force of rain as it falls. Trees also absorb sound and this further reduces noise pollution.

In summer, planting trees can also help cool our home. In winter trees can act as wind breaks for our home. Besides, trees shade buildings, streets and homes. If enough trees are planted in cities, the over-all micro climate improves and total energy use for heating and cooling is reduced. Planting trees can help to reduce the overall high temperature of your city.

Just a moment around trees makes one feel good. Trees add to the beauty of Nature. They are friends of humanity. We as humans can play an active role in planting more and more trees to help offset deforestation and have a healthy environment.

Curbing Crime Rate among Youth

Crimes and criminals have been a part of the human society since times unknown but over the last few years crime rates have risen sharply in metropolitan cities all over India. The more alarming issue is that while earlier greed, lust and power motivated crimes, but today most of the cases are cynical in character. The latest phenomenon in the crime scenario is the involvement of today’s youth even in the most heinous and inhuman acts. National Crime Records Bureau has stated that the people in age-group 16-19 are responsible for a shocking 47% of the total crimes being committed in the country on an average. Crimes related with cyber world, kidnappings, ransoms, murders, rapes behind tinted glasses in moving vehicles, even ragging and road rage fatalities are largely committed by the juveniles who are yet to begin their journey as adults. In my beliefs, the adults are largely responsible for the direction in which today’s youth is headed. There is an urgent need to implement stringent laws and provide value education through schools and other media to ensure curb on crimes among youth.

Use and Abuse of Examination

Examination paves our way and provides a real test of knowledge and education. Someone has rightly said that the gold begins to melt when it is put to the test of fire. The moment we enter examination hall, we begin to stagger and our mind becomes full of anxiety and confusion. The students can be seen under a peculiar grip of fear with their mind and soul under stress and tension.

We should always remember that our worthy teachers and students work very hard around the year. If no examinations are to be held periodically, none would be able to know the result of their fruitful labour. Furthermore the examinations present a goal before us and we become aware about the amount of work to be completed with stipulated time. Examinations are the real tools that inspire us and inculcate in as well planned habit of studying. They lay down before the parents and society an assessment of the students. In this way examinations are very important. People think that examinations are not only terrible things but evil things also.

They destroy our self confidence and give us inferiority complex. They do not test our merit or knowledge but our capacity of retaining facts in our mind. It has also observed that the brilliant students find themselves down while dullards get top marks. This makes the students crippled and tension ridden.

We cannot do away with the examination. It needs reforms and improvement. If the paper setters, examinees are careful enough, a great reform can occur in the system.

The Increasing Violence among the Youth

The recent years have seen an unprecedented increase in the violence among the youth, often lethal violence all around the nation. Anecdotal evidence of increase in violence by young people against women, children and old people, of abduction, molestation, of road rage and other violent actions to get whatever they want is alarming. This epidemic has caused serious concern to parents, families and the public in general. This has shaken the very roots of the idea of building a peaceful, secure society where the youth become torch-bearers for the progress of the nation. Obviously, the personal losses, the trauma, the emotional pain due to the violent acts are immense. There is a growing fear that our institutions are unable to maintain social order. Brutal violence and the fear of violence have changed the way people live and think and have raised many questions for someone to answer.

One of the strongest influences on the young minds today is undoubtedly media which mainly constitutes television and cinema. The vulnerable youth today are constantly exposed to the media which has a lot to show by means of vulgarity and violence. Scenes of gory violence in films and some of the TV programmes provoke the youth to develop negative and dark thoughts which may, one day, turn into real life deadly scenes. Since media plays a serious role in influencing the youth, it can, in fact, be utilised in increasing awareness among the young. The media has a tremendous potential to communicate, educate and enlighten the ignorant masses to guard against this terrible spread of violence among the youth. The media can be used as a positive channel to direct the energy of the youth in the constructive mould.

Bullying-A Menace

Bullying in school is a worldwide problem that can have negative consequences for the general school climate and for the right of students to learn in a safe environment without fear. I comprises of direct behaviour i.e. teasing, taunting, threatening, hitting and stealing that are initiated by one or more students against a victim. While boys typically engage in direct bullying methods, girls who bully are more apt to utilise more indirect strategies. The key component of bullying is that the physical or psychological intimidation occurs repeatedly to harass and abuse. Students who engage in bullying seem to have a need to feel powerful. Students who regularly display bullying are generally defiant, antisocial and apt to violate school rules.

Bullying is a serious problem that can dramatically affect the ability of students to progress academically and socially. We can take strict measures to overcome this problem. A parental awareness campaign can be conducted during Parent-Teacher Meetings. An initial questionnaire can be distributed to students and the feedback of the survey can help alleviate the problem. Teachers too can work with children at class level. Learning in a safe and fear-free environment should be further ensured.