|
.
All I Ever Really Needed
To Know I Learned In Kindergarten
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 sandpit at
nursery school.
These are the things I
learnt:
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 sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your
hands before you eat. Flush. Fresh fruit and 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.
Take a nap in the
afternoon. When you go out in 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 little seeds in the plastic cup –
they all die. And so do we. And then you remember the book
about Dick and Jane and the first words you learned, the
biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything you need to know is
in there somewhere, the Golden Rule and love 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 fresh
fruit and milk at about 3 o’clock every afternoon after
lying down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a
basic policy in our nation to always put things back where
we found them and clean up our own 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.
By Robert Fulghum (1986)
|
