Learning About Life in Kindergarten

One of my favourite books is All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. In Kindergarten you should learn such things as:

 

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them….

 

And of course, taking these basic lessons and applying them to your adult life.

 

They are such simple ideas, but so true. Ask any teacher that has had Kindergarten for a few years, and they will tell you what an insight it gives you into human behavior…..the beauty of it, and the simultaneous simplicity and complication of it. Kindergarten is often a fascinating microcosm of society and a place where brilliant, exceptional things take place.  Most Kindergarten teachers would love to share a few of those stories with you, and they probably have a special little book at home where they keep a note of them. I have a plastic document folder filled with the special drawings that past Kindergarten students have given me – each a little reminder of the very special time we shared in that first year at big school. A recorded snapshot of a precious little soul before the trials of school life begin to take their toll.

 

The horrible news over the weekend, that Kindergarten children were victims in the most horrid of acts has left teachers the world over, numb. We simply don’t have many words. As a teacher and mother I am truly devastated. Flat. Dazed.

 

The juxtaposition of a safe, happy Kindergarten classroom with the horror of what happened in Sandy Hook, is both baffling and heart wrenching.

 

It is unimaginable to consider what some of those children learned in Kindergarten that horrible day. It is simply not right. I will go to bed tonight and every night, praying with hope that every child in the future can learn that Kindergarten is to be full of joy, hope, wonder, excitement and learning – and never terror.

 

I will pray that teachers continue to be some of the true heroes in our world - that out of this misery we can help each other to cope and that we can together, see a way forward. As Robert says in his book 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.

To my friends in the USA, I cannot pretend to know what you are going through. I can only try to understand. Please know that teachers all over the world are thinking about you and praying for you.