On Paper

“Does anyone know how paper is made?”

(Blank faces with confused expressions all around.)

“What if I tell you that paper is made from trees?”

(Sighs, gushes and incredulous looks.)

This was the scene in one of our classrooms a couple of days ago. The experience of being wonder-struck at being told or shown something truly ‘new’, is a pretty common phenomenon in childhood, and perhaps a rare occurrence in an average adult’s life.

It had been noticed that many children are in a habit of tearing off pages from their notebooks. Waste bins overflowing with paper is a pretty common sight here. So, this morning, during assembly we all watched the following video showing how paper is made. And then a couple of videos more talking about the history of paper and the importance of trees for all life. At the end of the videos, followed by a small discussion, the children seemed to have understood, at least verbally and hopefully in a deeper sense too, the importance of not wasting paper and of saving trees.