Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Robert Fulghum, I believe, makes excellent and intriguing insight in his essay, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I also believe that it really makes a point about the simplistic mindset and lifestyle we lived as kids and how we can learn to apply it to our lives now.

"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 an 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. 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 about 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 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."

-Robert Fulghum

From the simple and funny statements (flushing and taking a nap) to the deep and thoughtful statements (hold hands, stick together, and be aware of wonder) and even to the statements that really make you think twice (put things back and clean up your own mess), Fulghum hits all of the problematic points in our life. If we just simplify them down, make use of what we learned in Kindergarten, think of all of the problems that could be easily solved.

Take it how you would like, but Fulghums insightful essay speaks for itself. I suggest reading it more than once and thinking twice about each and every statement. It really has quite an enlightening effect.

All I'm saying is, Naivete is Bliss.