All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Here is the food for thought for this weekend.

I got this story from Professor Lee Parker.

Prof. Lee Parker
when crowned as Supervisor of the Year 2011
in Division of Business, Univ. of South Australia

Lee read this nice story when he delivered a plenary speech in the 23rd CSEAR International Congress on Social and Environmental Accounting Research in St. Andrews University, Scotland, on 7-9 September 2011. Thanks Lee for sharing this. It was one of the most discussed topics amongst many audiences during the conference, including me!

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All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
by Robert Fulghum

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, 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 milk and cookies are good for you. Live a balanced of 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

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...

And then remember about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest words 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.

Let's hold hands for a better world

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.