All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

I chose All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things by Robert Fulghum to read for my Something about Me challenge. It appeared on Sarah Miller's list. But it also turns out to be a 'recommended' read by my best friend, Julie.

I enjoyed most of the essay-like entries in All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten. There were some that I thought were pure genius. There were some entries that I loved, loved, loved. There were some that I was 100% on board with. That I thought "This is just so true!" But there were a handful that were just okay for me. But all in all, I'd have to say this book is a winner.

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.
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 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. (6-7)

Other favorite bits include the chapter on crayons (49-52 in the hardback edition)
The chapter on being yourself (being a mermaid in a giant-wizard-dwarf world) (83-85)
The chapter on Christmas gifts (96-98)
And perhaps my favorite, favorite chapter--the one on chicken-fried-steaks (53-55)

So as you can guess, I loved this book and would recommend it to others. What does the book say about its fans? That life is good, it just depends on how you look at it.

For more kindergarten thoughts...read Kindergarten Continued