Take Them With You

by Dr. Abhishek Gilara

I truly believe that the best way to teach children to align with nature is to take them along with you into it. Words won’t do what presence can. Screens and schools may fill their minds, but nature fills their hearts. Today, on a beautiful Sunday, my son and daughter—home for a short break from America—joined me on a visit to the cattle farms. We didn’t just go for sightseeing. We arranged special food to be lovingly distributed to the cattle, and I made sure it was done by my kids’ hands.

That moment, watching them feed the animals, something shifted. Their eyes softened. Their hands stilled. Their hearts connected.

This is what our children need today—not just education, but grounding. Not just digital fluency, but earthy wisdom. Not just the knowledge of nature, but a relationship with it. And such a relationship can only be built when they walk barefoot on the soil, when they look into the eyes of a cow, and when they give more than they take.

Today’s youth are brilliant, ambitious, and tech-savvy—but often rootless. That’s not their fault. It’s our responsibility. We cannot expect them to protect what they’ve never been a part of. Telling them to “care for nature” is not enough. We must show them—through our choices, our time, and our presence.

So take them along. Into the fields, onto the farms, beneath the trees, beside the rivers. Let them see that nature is not a subject—it is home. And the earlier they feel at home in nature, the more likely they are to protect it—not because they’re told to, but because they want to.

That’s how we raise not just smart children, but wise ones.