If you don't have conscience, there may be a lot of excuses

Ashot Bleyan's Diary note on August 13

Trees and shrubs in Yerevan mostly die in August-September. How many learners will there be in the classes of each school? Who has arrived and who has left? Everything will have been registered by September 4. Keeping this record is so vital for the officials and teachers. This information is more significant than the list of new students hung on the walls of universities and KTC (Knowledge Testing Center)….     

But who takes control over or registers how many trees and shrubs have dried out in each school yard, in the yards of kindergartens and other children’s institutions and in the adjacent areas? Which school yard has got an irrigation working system? Who is responsible for watering and taking care of the plants? Do we know them? Is the school gardener’s job valued and given importance to?... How many learners and teachers have voluntarily come to the school in July-August in response to the calls of the drying out trees and shrubs? Trees and shrubs are also living being, aren't they? Who has said to himself: “I have come to water my school trees with drinkable water if there is no irrigation or with my sweat if there is no drinkable water?” Who is punished or dismissed from work for dried out dead trees?...    

Year by  year, day by day I am becoming more and more intolerant and inhuman to soulless man, to his cruel attitude when the tree is drying out and dying, and you, man, do not notice it, do not feel it, do not get affected, do not act, do not water.

At the end of last academic year on the list of our vocational college leavers we had our first ten gardeners with one-year vocational learning. We will again have admission by this profession for the 2014-2015 academic year. It seems that they will be demanded by the private, state and municipal employers.

I decided to begin my ecological inspection checks with the Vocational High School and then I came down Mother School through the New School garden, and then I went to “Yuri Bakhshyan” children's park in the B4 block. My soul was glorified: well taken care of, trimmed grass, irrigated, clean and busy at 9:30 a.m. The park has so many users: grandparents with their young grandchildren, charming babies with their mothers in different corners and near the fountains, there was even a father kicking a ball…. I had a satisfaction with having encouraged a great number of Sebastatsies to join in Anahit Bakhshyan's initiative to totally improve the park, and we had a considerable participation. The Fine Art High School and Arman Grigoryan’s taste gives the park an expression of uprightness as a copyright stamp and a recognized sign.

 Delightful Sona Papazyan surprised me at the Schoolgarden entrance: today she is going to “Hnevank” expedition camp with her squad of learners and now she is saying good-bye to every tree and shrub: “Let me water them with my own hands, I will not see them for 5 days.”… Dear Sona, we are looking forward to the happiness of seeing you become a mother. Why isn’t taking care of school yards considered to be educational work and a rating indicator throughout Armenia, and why can’t the state inspectorate of the Ministry of Education and Science carry out ecological inspection checks towards the land areas having been given to the care of public schools? I am self-satisfied with the fact that five out of eight land areas of our Educomplex now have new complete irrigation networks. The irrigation systems of the rest of the land areas are supposed to be built in the 2014-2015 academic year.... On the 4^th of September a new autumn project will start with the conventional name Bangladesh “Alley” which will connect all the pedestrian crossings of the seven buildings of our Educomplex. Yes, I want such a birthday present for me: proper pathways which are built by the learners and teachers as educational work....

Davit and I are going to the balcony to sway and count... Davit has prepared a surprise: he begins counting from one hundred 100, 101, 102, ...110, 111, ...,120. We are counting my fingers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.. He shouts, “Father, I also have 5 fingers on my right hand.”…Remember, if counting with your child isn’t a pleasure for you, then you have forgotten the pleasure of discovery. Count willingly, with pleasure: count everything. Do not spare anybody or anything….