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Book Review: All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten |
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Written by Ng Wan Jing Stephanie
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Thursday, 12 July 2007 |
All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten
by Robert Fulghum
"The kindergarten Credo is not kid stuff. It is elemental . It is the basic foundation to what you will learn in future."
This is the 15th anniversary edition. The first edition was published 15 years ago (of course) and during this period of time it has become quite popular. There are 25 new essays in addition to the original Kindergarten. Each of these essays are written during different periods of his life over the years besides those that which he learnt in Kindergarten.
Through stories, Fulgham tells us the significance of the smallest details in life. He shares his musings on life, death, love, pain, joy, sorrow, hope. He tells us that when children ask "and then what happens next?" at the end of a story, they are right - as long as there is life, there is always something happening next. That even though you might not be a pilot but yearn to fly, you could fulfil your dream in some other way, like Larry Walters who flew 16,000 feet up in a lawn chair fitted with 45 helium-filled balloons surplus weather balloons. Or how people would travel down a street just to read the sign "dead end" at the end of it when they've already read one at the other end of the street, and then turn around and flee - life is still a dead end and we still find it difficult to believe. How about Crayolas (crayons) and the simple joy it brings?
The following is a section from the first essay in this book titled Credo:
I realized then that I already know most of what's necessary to live a meaningful life - that it isn't all that complicated. I know it. And have known it for a long, long time. Living it - well, that's another matter, yes? Here's my Credo:
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.
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 one 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 we 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 as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it's still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
About the reviewer: I am an innocent looking girl who loves to read and find books a complete turn-on, especially love the way words take me into a high. Exhilarating. Best thing about books is that they are always there and they satisfy my cravings, mostly, except for when the National Library does not have a particular book I want, or when they are not… substantiating enough. It does not matter though because there are many others just waiting for me to run my fingers across their pages. Especially loves fantasy stories because they can be strangely complex and ironically do not like romance stories. Is currently co-author of Wholly Books for Bookaholics. - Stephanie |
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