Sunday, March 25, 2007

All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned from the Feds


Here's why I was jumping out of my seat last week.

We're in the throws of spreading the word about ABC Music & Me for 4-to-6-year olds. My shoulders keep rising up to my earlobes, in a crinch over increasing pressures on schools, teachers, and the kids in pre-k, to find measureable ways to track the altruistic skills you're supposed to be learning in kindergarten ... and perform them on cue.

How will this ditty change if children grow up in an environment where they're not learning for the joy of the process, but for the performance?
All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Robert Fulghum
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 are sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are food for you.
Live a balanced life.
Learn some and think some and draw some and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out in 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. We are like that.

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