Kindergarten Wisdom

From Robert Fulghum’s All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten:

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.
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.

This week Gryphen over at The Immoral Minority was sent an email from Sarah Palin’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, threatening to serve libel papers at the Kindergarten class where he works (even though school is not in session). Mr. Van Flein didn’t say, “at your place of work” or “at the school where you work.” He said, “please let me know if you want to be served with the summons and complaint at the kindergarten where you assist or at your residence.” This is the same as saying, “I know where you work and I have no problem coming over there.” If that isn’t a threat, I don’t know what is.

This led me to think about common sense and decency. I don’t think Sarah Palin or Mr. Van Flein have much of either. As I was reading the list, these are the ones I think they need to study:

• Play fair.
• Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
• Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

I think I’ll send a copy of this book to both Sarah and Mr. Van Flein. They would do well to read up a bit on these items and do some soul-searching.