There are many fruit and vegetable gardens across the countryside. More students, at Madison Elementary School, are growing their own food in the gardens.

 The vegetables are washed. Then kids can eat them at a salad party. They are also sold in the school dining hall for lunch. This month, students will plant tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, broccoli(西兰花) and strawberries.

 Why are students learning how to grow food? Teachers want kids to learn healthy eating habits. Healthy food gives us energy. We need energy to grow.

 Many kids are now trying new food and learning how to grow food. Lisa is the parent volunteer of the program. She says a lot of students have told her, “I like salad. I didn't think I liked salad!” Then those students have gone home and asked their parents to buy vegetables that they have tried at school.

 Lisa's daughter, Lucy, is one of those students. She is in Grade Two.“I love the garden,”she says.“I didn't really like vegetables before we had the garden. Then we found out that gardening is cool. Now I like vegetables. My favorite vegetable is carrots.”

I work as a volunteer for the poor in Haiti. I decided to take my son Brain there for a week, hoping to educate(教育) him.

Before getting out, I told Brain this trip would be tiring and hard. For the first two days, he said almost nothing. Then on the third day, when we were climbing over high rocky mountains, he turned to me and smiled, “Really hard.”

    After that, a five-year-old girl, wearing a too large dress and broken shoes, followed Brain around. Later he said regretfully(遗憾地), “I wish I could speak French.” I was surprised that this was from a boy. He always hated French classes.

    One day, I was interviewing(采访) a woman villager for an article. By working hard, she had learned to read and write and became part of the leadership(领导层) of the village. That really touched my heart.

    Learning her story, Brain was greatly touched. His eyes were wet and there was love and respect(尊重) on his face. He finally understood the importance of my work. When leaving for home, Brain even offered(提供) to stay in as a volunteer. This trip was very meaningful.

    Once, Einstein gave a lecture in a university. After his speech, the audience started asking questions.

    A girl asked, "Do you think you're a giant of science？" Einstein said with a smile, "A giant is a person who is tall in height. You see I'm so small, how can I be a giant? Maybe I see a bit farther, only because I stand higher！"Then a boy asked, "You mentioned you stand higher than the others. It reminds me that you had a talk with a lady on the top of the Alps (阿尔卑斯山).I don't want to ask what you talked, but I want to know whether you realised you have been a top in the history of science when you stood on the top." Looking at the boy carefully, Einstein replied, "Well, my height cannot become a top. And there is no top that no one can get to, so we don't want to be a top, but we want to be a person to climb the top!"

    Then he took up a piece of chalk and wrote on the blackboard, "Standing on the top, you are not tall, but even smaller！"Then he said, "Though I stand tall, in the eyes of the world I'm still small! Finally, I can tell you a sentence, which was the last one I told the lady on the top of the Alps, 'Any top can be reached, for there is no giant in the world but the one who stands higher！'"A storm of applause(掌声) sounded. The lady who listened to Einstein's instruction on the Alps that year was no other than Madam Curie!

    I'm a Chinese student studying in Canada. I have been a boarder(寄宿生) with the Carsons for more than a year and a half.

    The Carsons live in their own house, which has four bedrooms including the one in the basement(底层) which I live in. Judy does all the work in the house and Andrew is responsible for the work in the garden. When they go out in the evening, they often ask me to look after their children.

    Judy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Morris, lived in another city. Judy was their only child and naturally they doted on(溺爱) Judy's children. They often sent the children presents.

    Last April Mr. Morris died. Now that Mrs. Morris was quite alone, I expected that Judy would want her to come and live with them. One day, Margaret told me grandma was coming to live with them and her daddy and mummy would want my room back. The news didn't surprise me and the next day I went to Judy and asked her about it. I said I couldn't think of living in their basement room any longer if it was needed for Mrs. Morris. Judy seemed surprised at first. Then she told me there was no deed for me to move, for they hadn't yet come to any decision about her mother coming to live with them. "Naturally I'm worried about my mother. She has been in poor health." She smiled sadly and added. "To be honest, Andrew and my mother have never got on well. We'll wait a bit and see what happens. Perhaps Moter will be all right living herself, of perhaps they will both change their minds."

    That was six months ago. During this time I've heard that Mrs. Morris has had two illnesses and that her health has got worse. A nursing home was mentioned once but Mrs. Morris refused to go there. So up to now she's still living alone and I'm still living in the basement room.

    Athena was born and raised in Ukraine. Her parents wanted her to become a lawyer or a doctor. But she always knew she wanted to paint. She also realized a career in painting would not be possible if she stayed in her country.

    Even though she was painting in her whole life and it was her passion(热情)but it was only a hobby. And she never really took it to the next level because back in the country all the artists were hungry artists. So she knew for some reason she never took art as a career because she would never be able to make money and be successful in it in several years.

    So. Athena came to the United States when she was 14 years old to pursue(追求)an American Dream. She was clear on her goal. Athena first worked at a health food shop. She began to paint on the shop's menu boards. A customer praised her skill and asked if she would help paint faces at street fairs. Athena says it was a good start. Then she went to FABAIC to start body painting.

    Body painting is quite different from plain painting. And she loves it very much. She says. "With body, you work with the people factor and it's not only you. Maybe they want to talk or move, and they cannot stand still for several days while the painting will last three to four days. When I paint. I can't stop."

    One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet .He held a sign which said, "I am blind. Please help me."

    There were only a few coins(硬币) in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and ask, "Are you the one who changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?"

    The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said, but in a different way."

    What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day, but I can't see it."

    Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

    Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

    The first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

There are at least two lessons we can learn from this simple story.

    The first is: Treasure(珍惜) what you have. Someone else has less. Try your best to help those who need your help.

    The second is: Be creative. Think differently. There is always a better way.