All I Ever Needed To Know I Learned in Kindergarten
author Robert Fulghum, Random House, 1988
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 school
mountain, but there in the sandbox
at 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 and draw and paint and sing and dance
and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon * When you go out
into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands
and stick together * Be aware of wonder
* Remember the little seed in the plastic
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 plastic cup---they die. So do we.
And then remember the book Dick and Jane
And the first word you learned, the biggest
word of all: LOOK. Everything you need to know is
in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and
life and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and sane living.
Think of what a better world it would be if
we all -- the whole world -- had cookies and
milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and
then lay down with our blankets for a nap.
Or if we had a basic policy in our nation
and other nations to always put things back where
we found them and clean up our messes.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are,
when you go out into the world,
it is best to hold hands and stick together.
