Just some thoughts about Kindergarten!

Not everybody learned kindergarten lessons

Robert Fulghum, in his book "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," discusses his thoughts on basic rules to live by.

On the way to the New Albany Primary School last Wednesday evening, I was reviewing some of the points he makes with my young son. We were visiting that evening to see a show devoted to rainforest ecology and conservation. As my son's teacher was one of the people responsible for arranging the event, it is needless to say that he was very excited.

Before entering the building, we discussed some of the thoughts of Fulghum, especially the "Golden Rule" In order to make it more clear to a 6-year-old boy, I typically expand on his thoughts with the following statements.

If you are going to watch a show in public, you need to:

Go to the bathroom before the show begins.

Don't walk around too much because you will disturb the people around you.

Don't talk loud enough for the person in front of you to hear.

Don't play with toys (like cell phones!)

Help watch out for the rest of your family.

And most especially, "Do unto others."

The performance was great.

It was too bad that I had to spend the ride home attempting to explain why so many adults don't follow the simple rules that my son is learning in kindergarten. Really all I could say to him was that he will be better in the end for following these rules. I will continue to be a model for him, because as Fulghum says: "Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile."

-I actually submitted this to our local newspapers as a letter to the editor. You can find it @ http://www.thisweeknews.com/?edition=NewAlbany&story=thisweeknews/051106/NewAlbany/News/051106-News-149288.html