What do you do at school?

The twins have started pre-school and have been going for a while. We were visiting and so I asked full of curiosity, "What do you do at school?" My follow-up was going to be "How do you like it so far?".

The twins are two rambunctious little boys who love to tear around and they never seem to sit down. However, I was surprised by their answer, which was, " We sit." Their mom reacted very quickly and showed us all of the stuff they were doing. And she talked about how they really like school. The boys did say they liked what they were doing, and they enjoyed playing with their new friends.

I found it interesting that when asked about school, they both responded with the same idea. "We sit." Part of the reason for young children to attend pre-school is to help them socialize and learn skills that they will need in Kindergarten, through to grade 12. One of the first rules is that you cannot run around as much as you want to, you have to sit.

They have learned the first lesson, I wonder if the teachers realize that is what the twins understand about school. School is important and we there is evidence that pre-school is important for the preparation of students when entering grade 1. Socialization is important because in pre-school and kindergarten we learn the rules of life and how to get along with people outside of our immediate family. We also begin to expand our worldview as we see others behaving in ways we may not have been aware. 

A few years ago there was a book called “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. Here is an excerpt from the book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten

ALL 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 sandpile

at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

·       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:

o  The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

o  Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.

o  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 thing 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.