What Have You Learned This School Year?

The school year is now over in Naperville, and many children are reviewing what they have learned.  High school graduates are remembering favorite classes and teachers.  College grads are writing resumes condensing many years of study into short sentences.  Most of us are breathing a sigh of relief that our children are finished with final exams and end-of-the-year projects.  Congratulations to all those who have worked hard and received good grades this year!

     But what lessons have meant the most to you?  At this time of year, I often remember the wise counsel of Robert Fulghum who wrote, All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten.  For those unfamiliar with Fulghum’s list of lessons learned, it includes:

• 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 hand 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.
• And then remember the Dick-and- Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

     This is a good list for all of us, individuals and groups alike. 

     These are good rules for healthy living also.  Research has shown that hygiene and basic sanitation are important to one’s health.  A good friend of mine told me once, “Protect your rest”, assuring me that if I take time to rest properly I could accomplish much.  Wonder and awareness are very important in lessening stress.

     There is a power outside of ourselves, a power greater than us.  Just like a child who takes their parent’s hand when crossing the street, we need to acknowledge this power and take it’s hand metaphorically.  As a student needs to take his studies seriously, we need to take our responsibilities sincerely also.  But we can reduce the stress we feel by remembering the lessons of our childhood. 

     All of this reminds me of the familiar Bible phrase, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov 22:6).  Life may seem much more complicated in adulthood, but the lessons we have learned can take us to newer heights of accomplishment.

     Don’t stress out – you have already learned vital lessons in life – ones that will take you far.  Remembering that instruction, you will find the simplicity that you may need to find the solutions to all sorts of problems.  You will feel less stress, and better health.