A LESSON TO INSPIRE US ALL
WHENEVER Thisbe Mendes spots someone dropping a crisp packet, or a can, or a plastic bottle, she gets involved. She can’t not, unlike so many of us who quietly look the other way.
So instead, and accompanied by a hard stare, she unleashes her ‘really deep speech’.
It goes like this: ‘You’re affecting the future. You’re making it worse for your kids. And for their kids. So stop. And Pick It Up!’
It doesn’t always go smoothly. Litter-bugs roll their eyes and call her a ‘teacher’, but usually they pick up whatever they’ve dropped, so 14-year-old Thisbe is happy.
Of course she is. Because while, like any teenager, she adores Netflix and Starbucks and lolling about on the sofa, she’s also an astonishingly active member of the Eco Committee at St Gregory’s Catholic Science College in Harrow.
Along with other members of the Eco Committee, she gives up her lunch breaks to recycle print cartridges and encourages teachers to turn off their computers at night. She lent a hand planting 2,500 crocus bulbs in the park next door. She helped write campaigning letters to Dr Therese Coffey MP about the plight of sharks and she lies awake night after night, worrying about the future of the planet and what a mess the grownups have made of it.
So it goes without saying that when pupils from St Gregory’s were asked to don rubber gloves and wellies and join in the Great British Spring Clean in Woodcock Park next to the school, she was one of the first to start loading up a bin bag with smelly old cans, plastic bottles and the odd dirty nappy. And she was in good company. Because yesterday, in an extraordinarily uplifting effort, representatives from pretty much every section of the community were hard at it by her side, sporting rubber gloves, wellies and oodles of co-operative spirit.
There were children from two primary schools (Uxendon Manor and Mount Stewart); toddlers from the Bright Start Nursery brandishing litter pickers taller than they were; eight staff members and the manager from the Ginger Indian restaurant; a local councillor; a clutch from the synagogue; a smartly turned out trio from the Northwick Park Rotary Club; members of the Woodcock Park Friends group and a dog called Blossom there to lend moral support.
But beneath the smiles there is frustration and anger – about litter, plastic, global warming and the appalling impact their elders have had on their environment.
‘ We feel very let down,’ says Thisbe. ‘I don’t want to live in a world filled with plastic,’ says Lillian, 13. ‘I want it to be clean.’
‘I’m surprised it’s been allowed to happen,’ says Samantha, 13. ‘It’s like people just don’t care. Maybe they’re lazy, or maybe they just don’t know it affects us all, but eventually of course, it will.’
While the older children are indignant, the primary school children are just confused.
‘I don’t really understand. People keep their bedrooms and their houses tidy, so why don’t they keep the environment tidy?’ says nineyear-old Anina, from Uxendon. ‘It’s mostly grown-ups, so we need to change their attitude otherwise the animals and plants suffer.’
Gosh. I feel a red flush of shame for my generation. Everyone here under the age of 15 agrees that grown-ups are the culprits – and the worst offenders are often their parents. Yolanda Chen, nine and from Uxendon, says: ‘I have to tell my dad off a lot. He drops cans all the time, so I pick them up.’
Andrew Prindiville, St Gregory’s head, is shivering with cold, but glowing with pride. ‘These are amazing children,’ he says.
All the kids I meet have a thirst for knowledge – not just to gather it, but to share it. ‘We have to educate adults,’ seems to be their catchphrase and it seems clear that these impressive youngsters should be our role models, rather than the other way round.
They’re all so switched on, it’s a joy. They follow current affairs avidly, and have firm views of what they’d do if they were Prime Minister – ban single- use plastic, increase environmental awareness and have compulsory litter picks.
In an hour, we have gathered a staggering 46 bags of rubbish. All piled up together, they look grotesque. Don’t the children mind tidying up after grown-ups who really should know better? ‘Not really,’ says Yolanda. ‘Because if they don’t and then we don’t, it will stay there for ever damaging our world.’