A man in Pakistan is now working to help children get an education. When he was a child, he did not go to school because he was too poor.

    It is reported that Pakistan has 25 million children who do not go to school. That is the second ­highest number in the world. Only Nigeria has more. Many Pakistani children must work to support their families.

    Mohammad Ayub was once one of those children. He is now a firefighter. He also manages a small school. VOA recently visited the school in the capital Islamabad.

    Ayub started with just one student in 1982. He saw a boy cleaning cars for days. He asked him, "Why don't you go to school?" The boy answered that his parents were dead and he had to work to help support his five brothers and three sisters.

    Ayub was also an orphan and he, too, had to work to help support his five brothers and three sisters. He said, "When my father died, everyone who came to the funeral said they were sorry, but no one helped." He sold newspapers and did other work to earn enough money to pay school fees for his brothers and sisters.

    Ayub wanted to help the young boy who washed cars, but he did not have enough money to pay the boy's school fees.

    Today, Ayub teaches many children at his school in a public park. Some of the children attend other schools in the morning, but come to Ayub in the afternoon to get help with their homework.

    Ayub has helped a large number of poor children since he began teaching. Many of them come from very poor areas near the park.

    Ayub said," I used to argue with kids who worked ' Why are you washing someone's dishes or their clothes? Why don't you study? ' "

    One of the children he advised to attend classes was Farhat Abbas. Ayub found him working with his friends about 12 years ago. "He followed us back home. He told our parents he wanted to teach us and asked them to send us to his school, "Abbas said.

    Today, Abbas is taking classes at a college and is helping Ayub.

    Many children are out of school, and those who do attend classes often get a poor education. Information gathered by an organization shows half of all Pakistani children in the 5th grade do not understand basic mathematics and cannot read a story in their language.

    A group in Islamabad reports Pakistan spends less on education than any other country in South Asia.

    One day an Australian farmer Joe saw a bright light in the sky. The light came nearer and nearer and suddenly Joe saw that it was a spaceship. The spaceship landed in a field quickly.

    The door of the spaceship opened and two strange beings climbed out. Joe was afraid of them. He tried to run away. But the spacemen walked towards him, picked him up and carried him into the spaceship. They put wires from a machine onto his head and then they could speak to him in English.

    They asked him questions about the Earth. "We're from Venus（金星）," they said, "but it is getting very hot there. A lot of our people are dying and we haven't much time left. We are trying to find a new home."

    After some time they freed Joe and at last the spaceship took off and could not be seen.

    Joe told his friends about the spacemen, but no one believed his story." You'll believe me one day, "Joe told them." The spacemen will come back..."

    When he was a teenager, Hunter Adams was very unhappy, and he spent many years in the 1960s and 1970s hospital for people with mental (精神的) health problems.

    When he left hospital, Adams decided to become a doctor, so he went to Medical School in Virginia, USA. But when he was there he did things in a different way. For example, he didn't like the doctor's white coats. He preferred to wear shirts with flowers on them when he visited his patients, and he tried to make them laugh. The doctors at the medical school didn't like Adams very much because he was too different.

    But Adams believed that people in hospital need more than medicine. He saw unhappy and lonely people, and he tried to help them as patients, but as people too. He spent a lot of time with children in the hospital, and often put a special red nose on his face to look like a clown and to make the children laugh.

    When he finished medical school and became a doctor, Adams opened his own hospital, called "the Gesundheit Institute", together with some other doctors. They wanted it to be a place in a different way of working with sick people.

    Hunter Adams became famous during the 1980s, and in 1998, Universal Pictures made a film about his life. It was very successful. In the film (called Patch Adams), Robin Williams played Adams. Williams said, "Hunter is a really warm person, who believes that patients need a doctor who's friend. I enjoyed playing him."

    Mr. Gao lives in a town. When he was twenty-five, his son was born. He calls him Gao Ling. The little boy is clever and his parents love him very much.

    It's September 1^st today. A new school year begins. Gao Ling is happy and wears his most beautiful clothes. He's going to school with his new bag.

    "Let me take you to school, dear," said Mrs. Gao.

    "Thank you, Mummy," said the boy, "The school is not far from here. I can go there myself."

    At school a teacher met the little boy and asked," What's your name, my little friend?" "Gao Ling, sir", answered the boy. "How old are you?" "Six, sir."

    "What's your father's name?" "Gao Dalin, sir". "How old is he?" "He's six too, sir." "Oh," the teacher said in surprise. "Is he as old as you?"

    "Yes, sir." said the boy. "He became a father only at that time when I was born."

    Ding-dong!

    "Jason, honey? Can you answer the door?"

    "I'm busy, mom!" Jason shouted back at his mother. He'd spent three hours so far working to his point in the gate. He couldn't stop now.

    Ding-dong! Mom's footsteps approached the front door.

    "Jason, it's your friend, Todd." Mom called from the doorway.

    Todd, his best friend, stepped into the room. "Jason! I need a partner for playing basketball. He sounded excited.

    Jason snorted, "No way, Todd. I'm playing a game here."

    Todd shook his head. "You can play later. Let go."

    Jason gave his friend a dirty look, and his character in the game almost got killed while he looked away, "I almost died because of you!

    Todd looked at Jason's mother. Jason's mother looked back at him. They both looked at Jason. "Why don't you play basketball with your friend?"Jason's mother suggested.

    "Tomorrow, maybe." there were more levels to beat tomorrow, though. Maybe he'd play tomorrow. He'd have to see what mood he was in. He thought he heard footsteps walking away, but he was too busy beating the next level to care.

    An hour later, Jason's father came home. It was dinner time after his father washed up and sat down. Jason didn't even hear his name being called to the table. He didn't hear his father walk up behind him and ask him to turn the game off, either.

    When the screen suddenly went black and his father's angry face loomed in front of him, Jason finally heard. "No more game for a month." Jason's father shouted at him. "You don't play basketball, you don't come to dinner, and you don't do your chores. We'll make sure everything else gets done before you play anymore."

    Jason nodded slowly. He knew better than to argue with father, and when he thought about it, he had been playing quite a bit. It was fun, but he was letting down(使失望) his friends，his family, and himself by playing too much.

    He'd try harder in the future.