Me+Ecology=Meecology
I couldn’t wait for sixth grade. Mrs. Heimerl had a little side room where the “advanced” kids got to work. The way I figured it, I would just make the cut as far as smartness. But when the school year began, the room was a resource room for kids with special needs.
Darn.
I loved special treatment… any way I could get it.
I did discover one way to get some special treatment. Mary and I would play on the far side of the playground. When they blew the whistle for our class to go in for lunch, we would make sure that we were the last ones in line. On a regular basis, the lunch count would be off and short a couple of meals. Mr. Gartske would load the two of us into the backseat of his sedan and we would accompany him to the high school.
We stayed in the car as our principal went to get the extra lunches. I was amazed at the maturity of the kids walking between classes. Girls with long, straight hair carrying armloads of books. Couples laughing, holding hands. They looked so adult. So grown-up. These trips made me (and probably Mary too) feel special. We also missed out on some of our afternoon schoolwork.
That same year, Mrs. Heimerl picked me for a special assignment. I got to show a special film to all the classes in our school. My teacher showed me how to load the film and operate the projector. The big machine was loaded on a rolling cart. I collected it from the AV room and moved it safely and expertly from room to room. That meant I got to watch this special film around a dozen times over the course of several months.
The film was a 1970 classic, “Meecology.” A little 1970s edutainment product from the folks at McDonald’s: a 16mm film for kids that talks about ways to help the ecology (add ‘ecology’ to ‘me’ = ‘meecology’). It made quite an impression on me. I loved the idea that I could personally influence the quality of my little space on the planet. By picking up random garbage and turning old soup cans into flowerpots, I could help the environment.
It inspired me to collect litter as I walked the half mile from school to my home. During the 12-minute journey, I filled my bags once. Then I stopped for a box at the little neighborhood grocery store at the halfway point and overfilled it with trash before reaching my house.
Many years later, as a teacher, I loved teaching kids to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” One of my favorite activities was the day we would go out as a class and clean up all the trash we could find. I passed out plastic grocery bags to all the students. We would scrounge the ditch beside the highway and the fences by the baseball diamond and athletic field. I felt pride when the little girls dug muddy sheets of plastic out of the culvert and expertly shoved them into their bags.
And there you have it: the blossoming of an environmental advocate, all thanks to a little film called “Meecology.” Who knew that a fast-food chain’s attempt at educational content would turn me into the queen of clean? If only they handed out fries and milkshakes as incentives—I’d have saved the whole planet by now!
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