All I need to Know...

As we get ready to welcome in a new school year, I know that some parents might feel nervous, specially for those little ones that are starting school for the first time. Recently I ran into an excerpt on a wonderful book by Robert Fulghum: The only thing I ever really needed to know I learned in Kindergarten. I am sure you are familiar with it, and I thought it would be timely to share it with you now. Enjoy!

Share everything.

Play Fair.

Don't hit people.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours

Say you are 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 in the world watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

Be aware of 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 aer all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the 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- would have cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and clean up there own mess. And it is true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.