Author and educator Robert Fulghum summarized the simple lessons of life in books and lectures when he told us that “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”. Many of those simple realities we have found to be true again and again. And aren’t there days when it would be great to be 5 years old again even for just an hour? Think how nice it would be to have the unbridled freedom to laugh a lot and cry a lot, think what a better world it would be if all of us could have milk and cookies about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down and curl up with our blankies for a nap (and, if you still do that as an adult, that is okay).
As the new school year starts this month, I think some of Fulghum’s reflections on kindergarten warrant repeating. Here are a few life lessons that are true whether you are 5 years or 55 years young:
1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
2. Put things back where you found them.
4. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
5. Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
6. Say you’re SORRY when you HURT somebody.
7. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
8. Live a balanced life.
9. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
10. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
11. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
12. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.
― Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Remember to enjoy each day. Eat some cookies. Take a nap or two. Remember to play fair and be nice. Share, do your work and don’t be tardy.
Karen