Last week I wrote about the amazing amount of knowledge we all possess (I Really Do Know A Lot!). It made me think about how we learn and acquire all of that wisdom and I was quickly reminded of this poem by Robert Folghum, written in 1988. I think it’s a poem worth reviewing, and the lessons in it worth taking to heart once again.
(Robert Fulghum not only wrote this as a poem, but also put it into book form. See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/)
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
By Robert Fulghum (excerpt taken from Chicken Soup for the Soul)
Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate mountain, but there in the sandbox at the nursery school.
These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
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.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.
I started kindergarten in the fall of 1969 – almost a lifetime ago when the Vietnam War was a hot topic and my parents were afraid of ‘hippies’. Both topics I didn’t understand, but I did understand the excitement of going to school.
The neighbor boy and I would walk the half mile or so to the building and I felt terribly grown up. I remember the kids who didn’t want to share. I remember those who didn’t want to say they were sorry and the children who wouldn’t play fair. I remember bell bottom pants and lying on my mat refusing to nap. I remember cookies and milk and playing and holding hands and circle time and show and tell and the clean up song. I remember hanging my coat up in the long coat closet and I remember the wonder and power I felt as I discovered how to make letters turn into words.
Mr. Folghum hit the nail right on the head. For most of us kindergarten provided us with our first real exposure to academics and hard social lessons and politics and the environment and personal responsibility. And for me, those lessons really ought to be refreshed every once in a while, because as I said last week – just because I know, doesn’t mean I apply.
Shelley's Sagacious Slants 