GOING BACK IN KINDERGARTEN (The Basics of Life)

As a teacher by calling,           (I believe on that) and by profession, I constantly read this familiar poem posted by pre-school teachers in their classrooms. For those numbers of times I read it, I already memorized the verses. I like the concept of Robert Fulghum in his presentation of the realities of life. But I have come to appreciate it more when I heard it from a Police Officer in his privilege speech during the regular Monday Flag Raising Ceremony of Police Regional Office – Cordillera.

He entitled his speech The Paradoxes of Life. He mentioned a lot of inconsistencies in the organization even in our personal life and ended it with the resolution of why not consider the basics of life in the poem “All I really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten.”

Let us take a look at some of those important points of the poem:

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

by Robert Fulghum

- an excerpt from the book, All I Really Need 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 sand pile 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 styro foam 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 without blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put things 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.------- end

It’s true, right? These are the things that our teachers and parents keep on bombarding us at our young age. These are but just simple manners and good conduct that we need to exercise in our daily living. We obeyed and applied these during those days. But why is it when we became matured, physically, mentally and emotionally, we seemingly forgot all those basics of life.

So, we end up:

·         being selfish--- we forgot to “share everything”;

·         We became competitive that we forgot to “play fair.”

·         In the expense of our own personal advancement, we forgot rule number 3: “Don’t hit people.” We “use” people to reach for our “star”, we practice “whom you know, not what you know”, in this way, we are hitting--- hurting people.

·       Put things back where you found them. Don't take things that aren't yours. So simple yet hard to do. Instead, we justify our deed with “finder’s keeper” practice. Why would you keep something which is not yours?

I admire my husband in imposing this rule in the house. Knowing to put things back in its proper places make things easier. There will be a common knowledge where to get things in case you need them like scissors, comb, broom, shaving razor, and all other common materials at home. This idea made our kids organized and disciplined.

            If only we, in our work place practice the same, there will also be little misunderstandings to handle.

Taking things which is not yours also pertains to taking credit on the accomplishments of others. Work done without proper recognition corrupts the intellectual and capabilities of personnel functioning hard for the organization.

·      Clean up your own mess. Well, in the Philippines, when we eat on a food chain or restaurants, we are used on leaving our mess on the table because we knew that a crew is tasked to do so. However, we became so dependent on people cleaning up our own mess that even if simple fixing of work table in the office, we can’t do. No wonder why even our own mistakes, wrong decisions, bad actions and the likes, we blame other people. We want others to clean our created mess. So bad.

·      Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Why is it hard for this thing to do? Instead of saying sorry, we keep on looking for reasons to justify what we have done. We are so prideful to admit that we are sinners. We are really sinners. The real reason why Jesus came to earth, for us sinners, because He loves us so. (John 3:16). We are quick to say we are of God’s but so slow in admitting our mistakes. Loving God requires lowliness--- humbleness--- it requires “saying sorry” for hurting others.

Remember the pre-schoolers? They too have misunderstandings in little things yet they are quick to say sorry whenever they hurt their playmates. Then, they are back playing with each other again. Just like that.

And so the rest of the poem is so simple.

There are mysteries in life which we cannot explain like the roots that go down and the plant that goes up, let us just allow God to reveal it, someday.

We will all soon die. Nothing is permanent in this world. So if we will all soon leave this life, what legacy are we going to live that others might emulate?

We will all soon die, what we hold precious for now like our possessions, our positions, our family, everything that we value, we will all soon leave it here. So let us not treat what we have and what we are as if it will not be gone from us.

Let us enjoy life and we can only do that if we learn to see our purpose, if we learn to apply just the simple things in life. There is nothing to lose if we go back to KINDERGARTEN.

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.

Picture courtesy of : Teacher Divina Pascual & Julieveth Mataba