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. 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 someone
Wash your hands before you eat
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 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. Then remember the book about Janet and John 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 sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations always to put things back where we found them and cleaned 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.

I believe this to be adapted from "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum.

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