#44 - MP

#44 is my Kindergarden teacher.  She was awesome.  She taught kindergarden at MICS for many, many years.  After she retired, she still visited the school often as she lived just down the street.  She always remembered my name and my kid's names.  She passed away earlier this year and I know that she had a place waiting for her in heaven.  She earned it through years of patience with many, many 5 year olds.  These are a few reasons that I loved #44.

She taught me how to tie my shoes.  This is a lost skill that is no longer taught in Kindergarden.  Now they are busy learning to read and do multiplication and advanced physics.  I don't think any of my kids ever learned how to tie their shoes.  It's either Velcro or Crocs and on school days, mom ties at least 2 pairs.

She taught me all of my letters using the "letter people."  To this day, I know about the long A with Mr. Acorn and the short A with Ms. Achoo.

At the end of the school year, she would let the entire Kindergarden class walk to her house for an end of school picnic.  Not even 1/4 mile, but we sang songs as we walked and I was sure it was in another town.  So grown up!

She was a wonderful person and dedicated teacher.  She made school feel like a game and still managed to teach us what we needed to know.  I feel very blessed to have been taught by her.  In her honor, a favorite poem of mine. 

All I Needed to Know, I Learned In Kindergarden

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.

Be aware of 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 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

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 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.

© Robert Fulghum, 1990.

Found in Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Villard Books: New York, 1990, page 6-7.