Life Skills Learned in Kindergarten

​​Almost forty years ago, American author and minister, Robert Fulghum wrote a collection of short essays about wisdom can be found in the little things, like sharing, playing fair, and putting things back where they belong in "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." 

​In the first essay, he shares, "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 sand box at nursery school.

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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 are 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 some and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday.
• Take a nap every 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. We are like that.
• Goldfish, hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the cup all die...and so do we.
• And then remember that book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK!
• Everything you need to know is there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology, and politics and the 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 we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations 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 in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together."
--- Robert Fulghum

Consider reading the whole book which contains more profound insights and offer a healthy antidote to the challenges we face today. In the updated edition, Fulghum has added  fresh thoughts and insight from his experiences. 
​www.amazon.com/Really-Need-Know-Learned-Kindergarten/dp/034546639X

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