Not all truth, wisdom, and joy are at the top of the graduate-school mountain (Fulghum, 1990). Some are at the sandpile at Kindergarten school. Some are in the smiles and frowns of kids at the playground. A few are with colleagues, in hallways, and in the labs. Others are on the stretch of the seashore, riverbanks, and starry skies.

Most of the things I learned in life, I learned in Kindergarten school and in early years of my education. Things like (Robert Fulghum, 1990):

Share and help one another. 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. Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Be aware of wonder. Goldfish and hamsters and little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all grow and die. So do we.

And as Robert Fulghum continues, “everything [I] you need to know is in there somewhere.  The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.”

Robert suggests, “take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your work or government or work and it hold true and clear and firm.”

©Robert Fulghum, 1990 “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten“