JACKSON - Bob Kochtitzky's idea of an Easter egg hunt at Boyd Elementary School here is to hide litter around the school campus and challenge the students to find it.
The hidden litter idea is just one of the many ways Kochtitzky is helping Mississippi school kids develop an awareness of how they are members of Earth's family in his award-winning "Our World Discovery" program.
Kochtitzky, executive director of Mississippi 2020, a non-profit environmental group, has since 1992 meshed his hands-on innovative program into elementary school curriculums to heighten youngsters' awareness of their role as Earth caretakers.
Almost as a bonus, Kochtitzky's program is aimed at transforming the school campus into a model of positive human relations, improvement of test scores and development of successful leadership.
At Jackson's 2-year-old McWillie Elementary, Kochtitzky staffers are working with teachers to involve students in waste paper recycling, composting cafeteria food waste and raising organic vegetable gardens.
McWillie is a state-of-the-art single-level school building with classroom clusters arrayed in three spoke-like pods jutting out from a circular center. There's a good bit of distance from one end of each spoke to the center, and that's fine with Kochtitzky, who says kids need to walk more.
Housing kindergarten through second-grade students, McWillie is ideally suited for the Mississippi 2020 program.
This year, it's one of two public schools in the city with specially trained teachers to educate in the Montessori method, noted nationally for developing initiative and creativity in children. Montessori at McWillie (previously available only at private schools in Jackson) has attracted a number of white parents to send their children to the new Northeast Jackson elementary school.
Hands of eager second- graders in a McWillie class, shoot up to grab the attention of Kochtitzky staffer Sarah Gentry as she doles out tiny plastic beads of seven different colors representing the earth family - water, soil, air, sun, plants, animals and people - then asks for comments.
"What would our world be like without the sun?" asks Gentry. Youngsters weigh in with a wide variety of answers.
"Dark, and cold," a little girl in braided pigtails says, right on the mark.
"What can we do to protect our air from smoke and fumes from automobile exhausts?" Gentry adds as clear beads are passed out.
Several say "ride our bikes," and then with some coaching from Gentry, they come up with car-pooling to school instead of a number of cars.
Already experienced into putting waste food scraps from their lunch trays into a compost bin located in the green space outside the classroom pod, the children are quick to answer when Gentry asks about plants.
And likewise when she hauls out the brown beads to represent soil, since they are already aware of the role of worms in the enrichment of soil.
Over at Boyd school a few blocks away, with grades 3 to 6, dirt-filled worm boxes are kept in some of the classrooms to let youngsters watch daily how worm excrement provides natural nitrogen.
Also at Boyd, the recycling of waste paper (remember the "Easter egg" hunt?) is brought to a higher level.
Boyd students are now into another Kochtitzky project: making patches bearing words such as "love" and "concern," to be put together by volunteer quilt-makers and sent to orphanages in Iraq or other nations.
In Jackson, Kochtitzky labels his program "Growing Leadership for Jackson." He doesn't merge the idea into the school curriculum without prior consent from the local school officials, and also the state Department of Education.
Assistant Principal Vicki Conley at McWillie enthusiastically endorses the Kochtitzky program, introduced at the school last year. It has "connected our students to the natural world by creatively providing techniques to increase self-esteem, value teamwork … and expand community involvement," she says.
Six years ago, Kochtitzky won national recognition for his innovative "Our World Discovery" program at 600-student Orange Grove Elementary in Harrison County.
Kochtitzky's home back in the 1960s was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan because he was an outspoken opponent of segregationist tactics. Since, he has become one of the state's leading advocates of recycling and environmental protection.
Now he happily wages his personal campaign to make children become "Earth literate" and also role models for sustainable lifestyles.
