The message is simple, but true.
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 sand pile at 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.
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 one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things 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 in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum. See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/ ]
When you go out in the real world, all of us have to watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together through out our lies. We have to watch out for bad things that can happen to us if we follow them, in other words sin. In the real world we won’t have people look out for us, and as we continue to live our lives we need God, and other friends to stick together when times get rough. We need to stay together to pick others up and live our lives according to God. That is why we have to watch out for traffic, hold hands with God, and build relationships with others as we go out in the real world.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
this lesson is important because it tells you not only that cookies and milk is good (which it is) but it also has a deeper meaning. This means that everyone should enjoy a small treat every once and a while. rather then be stressed out about life and being too fat or not popular enough etc. we should stop every once and a while and enjoy some of life’s simple pleasures such as cookies.
Share everything. In this day and time, our world becomes more selfish while they gain earthly possesions. People need to realize that there are the less fortunate who need our help and its our duty to serve them well. Sahring is caring in a world that turns their back on those who are unable to receive the things we get.
MY first reaction to the story is that how when I read through it the first time,how truly this list that i learned before anything else, still applies so strongly to my life. I felt as if i had forgotten some of these, but that i still remembered them to this day, having them hard wired into my brain. It just amazes me how that these truly are the basic tenants of life, but they are so simple that they can be taught to kindergartners, and have them live by it.
Playing fair is the most important bullet point in this list. Everyone needs to play fair. When you have people that do not play fair the whole game is out of order. It destroys the whole point of a winner and loser. When someone cheats they have an advantage over the opponent, which makes it unable to have a real winner.
There are many ways we can apply this to are lives. When we are in an athletic event we need to play fair. When people cheat they are considered to have bad character. This will change the way people look at you. So remember always play fair kids!
I miss kindergarden! I don’t remember the Dick and Jane books. I’m not quite sure what those are. I’m sure that if somebody told me what they were about and refreshed my memory, then I could remember them.
Take a nap every afternoon? I never liked taking naps when I was younger and I think that as teenagers we need them now more than ever! We should take activity period, turn off the lights, and pull out the little cot-like beds and sleep! Why not?! Its sounds like a pretty good idea to me! Teenagers are moody and we need the naps a lot more than the little munchkins do! Besides, as far as I know little kids don’t like naps…. I mean thats how I was! Younger, tiny, little people are too hyper-active to lay down for an hour, close their eyes and take a snooze. I think that any high school student attending HHCA would rather have a nap period than have activity period!
Hold hands and look out for traffic, I think this one is the most important. Yes, you need to look out for traffic, but I also think that this point has a deeper meaning. Holding hands and sticking together shows that you care and wanna go through whatever life throws at you or whoever you are “holding hands” with. The traffic is the many ups, downs and obstacles that you go through, small or large. Just be cautious of what you may be getting yourself into.
This can apply to you and your life if you’re 4 or 40. Whether its literally holdings hands and crossing the street or sticking with your friends and diving into your life. (:
**who ever
**want to
“Live a balanced life- learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”
This is an important rule because in today’s society everyone is way to up tight. Yes, right now we’re not concerned with politics, the economy, or how much money we spend all we care about is having good friends some of us are concerned with being the center of attention, and again others are just trying to make it through high school. Even if you look under all of that you see dreams even if you don’t want to admit it you have a dream whether its as far as winning your next game or becoming a successful attorney. Some of us don’t have a plan for their lives they might have a brief idea of what they want to do but they have no idea what they want to do beyond college. My point is sometimes we need to dream a little do big, laugh a little to much, have so much fun we go crazy, and sometimes we just need to forget about all this stress and go back and remember kindergarten. The time when your only concerns consisted of what kind of cookie is in your lunch box, if your best friend can spend the night, or if you accidently went outside the lines on your coloring sheet. The time when you couldn’t understand while everyone was so unhappy and stressed when your world was perfect. We look back now and say “those were the times” but why do the good times have to end now? We have experienced the world so that some how makes us older and wiser? Just go back for once and dream to big, worry about nothing except going outside the lines on your coloring sheet go back to kindergarten and enjoy it again.
I would add the rule ” make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the others gold.” My favorite part about that rule or saying is the fact that it tells you to keep the friends that you made even though one friend maybe be closer to you than the other. Silver is compared to gold as a “best” friend is compared to a not-so-close friend. This helped me to realize that i can have closer friends as long as i don’t forget the others.
Making new friends is always a fun experience for me. I enjoy meeting new people and getting close to others. In kindergarten, most kids have never met each other, they are all new to the school experience. One of my favorite things about school is seeing the people i have fun with everyday. As you get older you make more friends, some end up being closer to you than others. This also happens in the adult world. When somebody is new to a company they may find themselves closer to one person than thy would to another. They would have many silver friends, possibly the the rest of the company, and a couple gold friends, commonly the friends they are closest to and share their problems or ideas with. This shows that throughout you life, from going to kindergarten on the first day or starting at a new company, you will make friends and some will be closer than others.
Play Fair.
I think every one needs to learn to play nicely and fair. A lot of politics are always digging up old secrets of their competitors to make them look beret. This time of year there always adds on TV that talk about one governor that when to visit troops in Iraq and they say it is a bad thing. So the moral is that we need to learn to get along and not worry about the small detail.
We need to all play fair. Always remember the saying “cheaters never win.” This should go for anything we play in life whether it is an athletic game or taking a test at school. We should never try to cheat just to beat another person who is better than we are. I feel that sometimes cheaters do get their way, but everyone always says that it will not help them out in the long run.They cheat in sports and get away all the time to make them look better. This seems like it is easier to cheat on like a test at school,rite? Well, they will suffer later on when they cannot get into a good college or they get caught cheating. These things show that what you learn in kindergarten effects you long after that.
One of the basic things that Robert Fulghum said is to share. When you share something with someone, you are showing that you are not selfish and giving something that is yours to someone else. When you always keep something for your self and never share with anybody else, that is called greed. Greed means that you have an excessive desire for wealth and possessions. Jesus teaches us to give to the less fortunate, because one day we could lose everything that we have. When you share with someone, both people will you will feel good because you helped someone else. Sharing is caring.
I think Fulghum got it right when he said “Say your sorry when you hurt somebody” because that is something that we can apply to our entire lives. It can apply to more than just physically hurting someone it means if you hurt someone’s feelings you need to say sorry. Its ironic that we learn this as kindergartners but few of us truly apply it to our everyday lives. There are many of us that have done little things to people without really thinking about what we are doing.
If we could remember the simple lessons we learned in kindergarten we could be friendlier, nicer people. Little acts of kindness go a long way and can make everyones lives a little better.
“Take a nap every afternoon” It is a fact that kids, mainly teenagers, need water, oxygen, and sleep to grow strong. Once kids get older they have more and more activities and use a lot more energy especially when they are growing. Personally, I would love to have a resting time during school. Having a time to relax and refresh our bodies would be useful especially if you have a busy schedule, like me. I usually go to bed at ten-thirty and wake up at five-thirty in the morning. Between the time of going to bed ad waking up, I have almost no time to breathe! First, I get up to go to school until three p.m., then, i race to the ballet studio and dance fore several hours by the time I get home I have to do my homework and eat dinner. I have no free time what so ever! I would love to have a time during the most stressful part of the day to have a refreshing nap.
Play fair. Sportsmanship proves to be a great quality for those who play sports. Being a strong leader and influence helps others to follow and lead by example. Without sportsmanship, our athletic games would be nothing but dispute and hatred. With it, we can have a clean game, coming off the field knowing you did you best and you showed your best through your words and actions.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Even though this phrase was directed more toward kindergarten students, we as teenagers and adults can still apply it to our lives in a different perspective. When you use it talking to kids, you basically are saying when you cross the street you need to hold hands and look both ways. When I look at this phrase, being a teenager, I see it in a different point of view.
As teenagers and adults, when we read this phrase most all of us interpret it differently. When I look at it, I think of my life. Going through life, you should always have a few good and close friends. Because in life you will always come across obstacles (traffic) and you will need people to be there for you and help you out ( hold your hand).
To Say sorry when you hurt somebody is important because its not caring. You should never try to intentionally hurt someone and if you do it should always be an accident. You can hurt people physically and mentally.However in some cases there pain level may be the same. To some people,what people say to them is way worse then being physically hurt,but for others its the opposite.
It is really important to apologize when you have hurt someone,because it could make them feel terrible about themselves and it could easily ruin their day. Also you don’t want the reputation of a bully,because then no one will want to be your friend. During sports it is really important to help others up and say sorry if you injure them because it reflects your attitude. If your sympathetic when your hurt someone,it usually prevents even more conflict.
I think it is important to wash your hands before you eat because there are many germs and I do not want germs going into my mouth while I put some other food into my mouth. When someone is sick at school, they are bound to spread their germs and get other people sick. I also think washing your hands is important in the winter because that is when a lot of students get the cold. Students play sports and if they are sick, they can not play in their games and that may effect their team.
As young children during our kindergarden year, we learned many good things. One being to wash our hands and being sanitary while being happy little children. I think the list above has many important things I learned in kindergarden and it brings back memories. Remember, wash your hands before you eat so you will not get sick.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
Realizing that all living things die is one of the most important bullet points in the list. If you can learn this when your little, it can make later tragedies in life less painful. An idea related to this can give you security when this tragedy occurs. That idea is Christianity. Christianity can give any age person the confidence that there is a better place to go when you die. It makes the death a lot less painful when you know they are going to a better place. Unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to plants or animals, but it can help prepare the little kids for the tragedy that will occur sometime in their life.
take a nap every afternoon:
I think the thing i miss the most from kindergarten is getting to take a nap every day. When you’re in kindergarten you hate it and can’t wait until you get older and don’t have to take naps. The older you get the more you realize that naps would probably be the best part of the day. If we could go to a quiet room during activity period to take a nap I think it would make it easier for students to concentrate on their work. It would also just make our days a little bit better. This is also a lesson to not grow up too fast. You should sit back and enjoy life as it comes to you and not try to think about how much better it will be when you’re older. Instead think about all of the great things you get to do when you’re young, like taking naps every afternoon.