Back to Kindergarten

Life, Money and Gratitude # 40 Back to Kindergarten

Sometimes you come across something and it’s so well done that you don’t need to change anything, you just need to share it.  Many decades ago I read this credo from Robert Fulghum called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten which became a book by the same title. Recently my wife reintroduced it to me, here it is, enjoy.

All I Ever Needed To Know I Learned In Kindergarten 

By Robert Fulgham

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 sandbox at nursery 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 some

every day.

Take a nap every afternoon. 

When you go out into 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.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed

in the plastic cup ~ they all die. 

So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane 

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 ~ the whole

world had cookies and milk about 3 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 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 into the world, 

it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Until next time, God Bless and be well.

Arial (18 pnt) All I Ever Needed To Know I Learned In Kindergarten poster (1).pdf

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Back to Kindergarten

M. Joseph Benric is the author of Graduation Gift , A Step-By-Step Guide to Financial Literacy for Young Adults

If you're trying to be a positive influence in a young person's life try gifting a copy, and helping them on their journey to financial success.