Interesting that the recent flow of communication in this forum has touched on such topics as abuse to animals, which has naturally led to forays into environmental abuse and even worker abuse and oh yes child abuse. I find this heartening. For one it shows me that my fellow ESL/EFL teachers are for the most part caring and compassionate individuals. And for the other it shows me that we are mutually meandering through this maze called Asia with our eyes wide open.

Now, although we are in some ways mandated to maintain a certain degree of political correctness, it begs the question how far are we willing to go to set the young people of these countries onto paths of "correct consciousness?" Granted, it would take a real dolt to expouse his or her personal feelings in the classroom regarding such issues as Tibet or Taiwan - in fact I know of at least one teacher who has gotten the boot over the Taiwan issue; however, I feel no compunctions about letting my feelings be known about the need for an expanded environmental movement here in China or the need to create an environmental consciousness in the young people here or elsewhere in Asia.

If indeed we feel that certain issues are critical, is it not our responsibility as compassionate, caring individuals to make even small attempts to alter the wrongs that we see? I think so. Depending on which environment I find myself teaching in - having first tested the waters of course, I often incorporate into my lessing planning or communication sessions some discussion regarding the environment, my personal axe to grind.

So while we are grinding our individual axes here, I hope that at the same time more of us will follow examples such as Robin Day's who protects a sixty acre section of Canada. (Kudos for that Robin!) I'm not sure if it helped, but here's an example of something I did that may have, in a small way, created change. I was working at a business college in Qingdao. The college was on a campus that had the potential to be quite beautiful. Unfortunately, most students on that campus either didn't give a damn or were just plain ignorant of the need to protect the environment. Every day on my way to work I had to cross a little bridge that spanned a creek that flowed through the campus. Could have been a nice little stroll to lighten my head before classes. Ha! No such luck. The creek was so polluted and so littered with garbage from the students and campus workers that it was not only disgusting to look at but also carried an unimaginably potent reek. Ah the winds of Qingdao - those cooling breezes in the hot summer that supposedly make it such a nice tourist destination. Well, not that part of Qingdao. The winds carried the near unbearable odor and it was wafted all about the campus.

Finally, I had enough. I always set aside a certain amount of classroom time for open discussion with my students. I carefully breached the topic of "the campus creek." One young lady, the brightest in the class, listened with rapt attention before offering up this little tidbit, "But what can we do about it?"
"Hmmmmmmmm," I replied. "Have you ever heard of the EPA?" (Yes, there is an Environmental Protection Agency in China.) Well, no she hadn't heard of it, but I watched with admiration as she wrote it down for later translation into Chinese. Perhaps she will create change. Perhaps she will shy away from confrontation with higher authority, But either way I left the classroom that day feeling as though I had accomplished something beyond trying to hammer English into the thick heads of students in a class where only 10 percent had any real interest in learning it.

But we keep on keepin' on don't we? So thanks again all of you who have raised such interesting points for the last few days. I hope we can all, even in small ways, make a change. Whether we see the change in our lifetimes or not is inconsequential. What really matters is that we try. Do you know about the "Hundredth Monkey Syndrome."