My Two Cents: Everything You Need to Know, You Probably Learned in Kindergarden

Your ABCs. Your one two threes. The Pledge of Allegiance. Basic grammar conventions. Follow dress code. Be polite. Say please. Say, thank you. Say sorry. Say I forgive you. Don’t worry, be happy. Ask for help when you need it. But don’t interrupt. Learn names. Remember names. Put your shit where it needs to go. Don’t leave your personal crayons in the public crayon bin. Don’t steal crayons from the public bin and put them in your box. Don’t steal other people's shit. Don’t stick crayons up your nose. Ask questions if you don’t know. If you do know, think about it a little more until you don’t, and then ask a question. All covered in Kindergarten, all the basic code of rules for any setting you find yourself sitting in.

Everything we do for the rest of our lives, no matter how big and scary, will be okay if we follow the rules of kindergarten. I mean seriously, if you are polite and don’t eat crayons, you should be just fine. However, I did have a kid in my kindergarten class who was an avid crayon eater. I wonder how he’s doing now. Hopefully, he finally learned to lay off the crayon protein. I, personally, spend a lot of time worrying about things that could be solved if I just followed the kindergarten rules. Which seems silly, when I really think about it. I know how to be polite (well, most of the time). I know basic grammar conventions (for example, Superman does good, but YOU do well). I know how to say sorry, and I usually know how to say I forgive you. I do sometimes steal whiteboard markers from the public bin at the East Campus Library and put them in my backpack. I would probably get docked on the kindergarten rules for that one. I could probably get better at the not interrupting one. And the remember names one. But for what I lack in those departments, I think I make up in the asking questions department. Even if half of those questions just ask people to repeat their names.

The last thing they teach you in kindergarten is that what you don’t know, you can learn through making an attempt. So if you don’t know now, you’ll probably know later. And until you get there, just trust what you learned in kindergarten.

Successful 2007 Kindergarten Graduate,

Kate