Monday, April 5, 2010

All You Really Need to Know You Learned in Kindergarten


In my high school nurse's office a poster hung above the cot (where everyone faked sick so they could take naps during class) that was titled "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." Well, turns out there is a book with this title and websites dedicated to this "guide for global leadership" as it is referred to. So, instead of posting about something crappy that happened at work or a list of ways to avoid being tired on the job I share with you everything you need to know in life...Enjoy.


"All 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 sandpile at Sunday 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 into 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.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all--the whole world--had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

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."

13 comments:

Aphrodite said...

i love this :) and will share it to my friends

Sara said...

So true...

~PinginRua~ said...

Fantastic post! It truely is the barest basics that make us who we are.. Life proves again and again that they're all you need.

Liz in the Library said...

i love this book! and it's all completely true. the biggest meanies in the real world just remind me of the playground bullies of my youth. pushing people down to get their own way.

Ellen said...

LOVE the cookies and milk rule. I'll remember that the next time I rip through a whole sleeve of Thin Mints without blinking ;)

http://firednfabulous.blogspot.com/

Content Director - Strong Female Leaders said...

Such simple life lessons. But so easily forgotten.

suki said...

absolutely agree. the most important rules are the most simple. funny how we can forget them over the years!

Simone Anne said...

Super cute and super true. Nice post! :D

Jennifer said...

this is awesome. it's crazy that it's these simple lessons that we often forget or write off as childhood folly that can and do work if we just pay closer attention and apply them. daily. moment to moment. thanks because I just may repost on my own blog

threecheersforchase said...

hilarious and true! I love it!

Anke said...

I just saw this poster in a cafe yesterday and loved the poem. And I am in awe at how true this poem really is. It's not just a funny little way of looking at things. Really, we can forget a lot of what we learn in school (other than reading, writing and some simple maths), but the things he lists you learn in kindergarten really are the foundations of everything!

Anonymous said...

Where can I purchase the poster for my office? Great wisdom I would like to share with students.

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