Learning For Life

At this time of the year, many families and individuals are focused on a common event - graduation! Children and adults from kindergarten through graduate and doctoral degree programs are celebrating accomplishments and achievements. During this time of year, I also have memories on certain days near the end of the month of May. May 25 marked the nineteenth anniversary of my seminary graduation. Tomorrow, May 29, will mark the thirty-second (yes "32" years!) anniversary of the date on which I received my high school diploma. The following day, May 30, is the twenty-third anniversary of my college graduation. While there are no remarkable memories of any of those dates, each holds a certain special sigfnificance in my life.

As I consider each of those anniversary dates, the years leading up to each one and the learning that prefaced each of those milestones, I recalled a story by Robert Fulghum which you might be familiar with, "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten". Fulghum writes, "Most of what 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 sandbox at nursery school." Now for those who attended school in the days before Kindergarten was mandatory, perhaps the story would be rewritten to state that all you really ever needed to know was learned in first grade.

Fulghum's story is remarkable in that if everyone would put into practice the tenets of which he writes, the world would certainly be a different place. For example, "Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day." Who among us does need to find more balance in life? In a world in which mere survival is fast becoming the driving force, there is a fear that if let our eyes stray from the career path to success, our lives will surely come crashing down around us. As a result, pharmaceutical companies are thrilled with their ability to supply the ever increasing need of medications to stabilize and maintain multiple generations.

Of course, my favorite is "Take a nap every afternoon". Fulghum goes on to further explain, "Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap." Just think about it. Crime would take a time out, wars and hostilities would cease if only for a time, blood pressures would be reduced over time and the benefits could go on an on.

For those of you who have heard this story before, what did you think the first time you heard it? Did you, like me, sort of chuckle and think "what a cute story!" Then, if you stopped to think about and consider each of the things Robert Fulghum describes and each of the tenets he sets forth, you realize that this "little" story is filled with wisdom and understanding. Just imagine if everyone followed these rules: "Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody." Our world is so far from this that most of can barely imagine what would happen if we all started following his suggestions. Later on, he even suggests that our nation and the other nations of the world would adopt the same policy to clean up our own messes and put things back where we found them.

As we stated at the beginning of this post, families and individuals have celebrated and will celebrate accomplishments, diplomas and degrees. With two degrees and a high school diploma behind me, I still remember my first grade teacher as having perhaps the greatest impact on my educational life. Since I only attended Kindergarten briefly, I don't have the same memories as Robert Fulghum and others. Adjusting to school full time was a difficult transition for me and there are a number of painful memories during first grade. Still, Mrs. Argent made a great impact on me and helped me on the way to academic achievements throughout my educational experience to this point in my life. I will be forever grateful for her insights and willingness to work with me.

While Fulghum's thoughtfully written story leaves a lasting impression, one might argue that one never really learns everything he needs to know. It could be said that learning is a lifelong experience and that sometime the most important learning takes place in the face of adversity. To that end, I fully agree with Fulghum's final word in the story, "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."

~ DB Turnmire