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KINDERGARTEN THOUGHTS ← Back to All Pages

Mrs. Lee

All I Really Need 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 sand box at kindergarten.

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 and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup -- they all die. 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 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

 

You ask "What's in my backpack?"

Written by Donna Whyte

You ask, "What's in my backpack?"

When I come home each day.

I wonder what you hope is there.

If it's empty, is that okay?

I tell you about my busy day,

How the teacher watches over me.

We sing, we laugh, we share, we learn

That's the way it's supposed to be.

You ask, "What's in my backpack?"

I say, "Today it's empty."

I see the disappointment

As you look down at me.

School is much more than "things"

That you can see and touch.

It's all of my life lessons,

And that means so very much.

For if you really what to know

What I do each day,

It won't be on paper;

You'll know by what I say.

Please don't look so unhappy

When you open the zipper wide.

What you are looking for today

Is all in my inside.

Ask me about my hands and ears,

My nose and my eyes.

Ask me what we talked about,

And if I remember why.

Each day we do so many things,

So many books to read.

Sure is nice my teacher knows

Exactly what we need.

That backpack on my back today

Carries back and forth my stuff.

If you want to know what I learned,

Listening to me will be enough.

My teacher wants to plant a seed,

Get my "love of learning" to sprout.

She wants it to last a lifetime--

That's what school is all about.

It's in my head and in my heart

That learning will take place.

"Childhood should be a journey--

Don't look at it as a race."