All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common ThingsAll I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten is a book of short essays by American minister and author Robert Fulghum. It was first published in 1986.
The title of the book is taken from the first essay in the volume, in which Fulghum lists lessons normally learned in American kindergarten classrooms and explains how the world would be improved if adults adhered to the same basic rules as children, i.e. sharing, being kind to one another, cleaning up after themselves, and living "a balanced life" of work, play, and learning.
All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things is one of the best-selling books of all time with more than 17 million copies sold. Here is the full text of the book: All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things by Robert FulghumChapter One
CREDO
To begin with, did I really learn everything I need to know in kindergarten? Do I still believe that? Here is the original essay, followed by my editorial reaction.
EACH SPRING, FOR MANY YEARS, I have set myself the task of writing a personal statement of belief: a Credo. When I was younger, the statement ran for many pages, trying to cover every base, with no loose ends. It sounded like a Supreme Court brief, as if words could resolve all conflicts about the meaning of existence.
The Credo has grown shorter in recent years—sometimes cynical, sometimes comical, and sometimes bland—but I keep working at it. Recently I set out to get the statement of personal belief down to one page in simple terms, fully understanding the naïve idealism that implied.
The inspiration for brevity came to me at a gasoline station. I managed to fill my old car’s tank with super deluxe high-octane go-juice. My old hoopy couldn’t handle it and got the willies—kept sputtering out at intersections and belching going downhill. I understood. My mind and my spirit get like that from time to time. Too much high-content information, and I get the existential willies. I keep sputtering out at intersections where life choices must be made and I either know too much or not enough. The examined life is no picnic.
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 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. Here is another link on YouTube Book information: Reading age: 14+ Word count: 38000 Number of pages: 186 Year: 1986 Sales (millions): 17 Links: Amazon, Wikipedia, YouTube, Goodreads, LibraryThing, Common Sense Media, Similar books: | Twilight (Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer Age: 13+ Year: 0 | | Animal Farm by George Orwell Age: 13+ Year: 1945 Pages: 140 Word count: 29,966 | | Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Age: 13+ Year: 1847 More... | | New Moon (Twilight Book 2) by Stephenie Meyer Age: 13+ Year: 0 | | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon Age: 13+ Year: 2003 Pages: 226 More... | | Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Age: 13+ Year: 1953 Word count: 45,910 | | Eclipse (Twilight Book 3) by Stephenie Meyer Age: 13+ Year: 0 | | The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Age: 13+ Year: 2005 Pages: 584 More... | | Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Age: 13+ Year: 1937 Pages: 187 | | Mockingjay (Hunger Games Book 3) by Suzanne Collins Age: 13+ Year: 0 | | The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Age: 13+ Year: 1988 Pages: 163 Word count: 38,342 Unique word count: 3,440 Sales (millions): 110 More... | | Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman Age: 13+ Year: 1996 Pages: 464 Word count: 99,383 | | The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett Age: 13+ Year: 1989 Pages: 976 Word count: 401,905 Sales (millions): 15 | | Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse Age: 13+ Year: 1922 Pages: 152 More... | | Stardust by Neil Gaiman Age: 13+ Year: 1999 Pages: 256 More... | | A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking Age: 13+ Year: 1988 Pages: 212 Word count: 61,224 Sales (millions): 10 | | Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe Age: 13+ Year: 1852 Pages: 384 Word count: 180,242 | | Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne Age: 13+ Year: 1864 Pages: 183 More... | | How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Age: 13+ Year: 1936 Word count: 78,107 Unique word count: 7,690 Sales (millions): 15 More... | | Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak Age: 13+ Year: 1957 Pages: 592 More... | More books: 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 See also: Classic Children Books Classic School Age Children Books Classic Books for Teenagers Classic Children Books by Age Best-selling Books of All Time The Benefits of Reading for Kids Why Learn English Language? Shortest Books Shortest Books (unique words) Longest Books Best way to learn English How NOT to Learn English! CVC Words What you need to know to learn a new language? Why I forget what I learned? Vocabulary Size More...
0 (558), fiction (227), novel (103), children`s literature (91), science fiction (88), fantasy fiction (61), fantasy (60), historical fiction (51), speculative fiction (46), horror fiction (44), mystery (43), non-fiction (42), self-help (38), romance novel (35), gothic fiction (31), young adult fiction (30), biography (27), humour (24), satire (22), autobiography (20), thriller (19), picture book (19), children (18), domestic fiction (18), crime fiction (18), bildungsroman (18), philosophical fiction (16), memoir (16), adventure fiction (15), literary fiction (14), legal thriller (12), psychological fiction (12), board book (11), absurdist fiction (11), suspense (10), magical realism (9), utopian and dystopian fiction (9), history (9), psychology (9), health (9), alternate history (8), poetry (8), nutrition (8), apocalyptic fiction (8), novella (8), drama (8), steampunk (8), black comedy (7), travel literature (7), toy book (7), postmodern literature (7), graphic novel (6), short story (6), inspirational fiction (6), self-help book (6), diet (6), advice (6), research (6), tragedy (6), war story (6), comics (6), psychological horror (6), life (5), dystopia (5), child rearing (5), occult fiction (5), detective fiction (5), bedtime story (5), cooking (5), techno-thriller (5), autobiographical novel (5), modern literature (5), parable (5), essay (5), chick lit (5), comedy (5), fairy tale (5), greek mythology (4), picaresque fiction (4), southern gothic (4), happiness (4), diet book (4), literary cookbook (4), parenting (4), tragicomedy (4), physics (4), historical (4), dissertation (4), epistolary novel (4), humorous fiction (4), high fantasy (4), thesis (4), academic writing (4), reference work (3), political fiction (3), science fantasy (3), middle ages (3), bedtime (3), gratitude (3), african-american literature (3), roman à clef (3), legal story (3), diabetes (3), postmodernism (3), epic poetry (3), dystopian fiction (3), christian literature (3), science (3), grammar (3), pulitzer (2), non-fiction novel (2), christian fiction (2), cyberpunk (2), comic science fiction (2), literary realism (2), cyberpunk derivatives (2), rhyme (2), religious fiction (2), emotional intelligence (2), motivation (2), autobiographical comics (2), intelligence (2), military science fiction (2), parallel novel (2), emotion (2), education (2), guidebook (2), fitness (2), politics (2), psychological thriller (2), statistics (2), reading primer (2), romance (2), western (2), short story collection (2), creative nonfiction (2), encyclopedic novel (2), urban fantasy (2), nonfiction (2), montessori (2), vampire literature (2), puns (2), transgressive fiction (2), farce (2), juvenile fantasy (2), true crime (2), spy fiction (2), surrealism (2), erotic literature (2), teens (2), hard science fiction (2), paranoid fiction (1), weird fiction (1), superhero fiction (1), philosophy (1), counterfactual history (1), tragicomedy (play) (1), victorian literature (1), romanticism (1), sensation novel (1), christian apologetics (1), political philosophy (1), fantastique (1), adventure story (1), taoism (1), storytelling (1), witches (1), espionage (1), geography (1), nhs (1), pregancy (1), allegory (1), rules (1), death (1), peace (1), bullying (1), denial (1), usa (1), wisdom (1), wwii (1), plague (1), horror (1), story (1), economy (1), friendship (1), generosity (1), opposites (1), new-age music (1), success (1), money (1), puzzles (1), non-fiction comics (1), brain (1), gender (1), religion (1), economics (1), pastoral (1), elegy (1), paranormal romance (1), modernism (1), popular science (1), christmas story (1), comic fantasy (1), dictionary (1), social commentary (1), post-postmodernism (1), hysterical realism (1), soft science fiction (1), space opera (1), children literature (1), secret history (1), sea (1), marriage (1), gonzo journalism (1), novel of manners (1), punctuation (1), nursery rhyme (1), comedy horror (1), novel ( (1), slice of life (1), metafiction (1), decision making (1), social novel (1), didactic fiction (1), textbook (1), misery lit (1), historiographic metafiction (1), fictional autobiography (1), cookbook (1), political thriller (1), language (1), slipstream genre (1), fantastic (1), medical (1), alternative universe (1), contemporary fantasy (1), epic (1), dark fantasy (1), china (1), style (1), creativity (1), encouragement (1), nanopunk (1), manga (1), fable (1), serial (1), social criticism (1), hardboiled (1), feminist fiction (1), existentialism (1), western fiction (1), the holocaust (1), litrpg (1), picture puzzle (1), pirates (1), saga (1), absurdism (1), christian mythology (1), experimental literature (1), treatise (1), teenage (1),
|