Book Review: All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (by Robert Fulghum)

Book Review 

ALL I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN 

By: Robert Fulghum

Genre: Non-Fiction | Published: 1986,1988

There is magic from its title alone. There is curiosity that tickles the mind on what he means with it. Fulghum’s wit and simplifies the ordinary things and made them extra special. It is a delightful read that will leave you smiling in between the chapters and pages of this book.

It is simply a collection of short narratives in his life which quiet applies to ours too.

He also started this book with a list of basic things we learn in KG that truth be told – still relevant to our “NOW”.

Here, he also shared A Storyteller’s Creed which goes:

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.
That myth is more potent than history.
That dreams are more powerful than facts.
That hope always triumphs over experience.
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.

– Robert Fulghum (AIRNTKILIK)

 

Of course, I won’t end this book review with out some of my most favorite lines in this book.

 A Few Lessons worth taking notes (but not limited to it are the parts about :

• *Miracle in a box
• *Spiders
• *Solomon islanders yelling to trees
• *Abacus
• *The Russians
• *Charles Boyer and there are more…

* * *

“Living things have been doing just that for a long long time. Through every kind of disaster and setback and catastrophe. We are survivors. And we teach our kids about that. And maybe spiders tell their kids about it too.. in their spider sort of way.”

“Solomon islanders may have a point. Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them Sticks and stones may break our bones but words will break our hearts.”

“There is a sense that we need to go home again – and can go home again. Not to recover home, no. But to sanctify memory. . . . Through hard to explain, there is treasure there.”

“Her love was life to me…

. . . But there are moments when I look across the room – amid the daily ordinariness of life – and see the person I call my wife and friend and companion. And really is possible to love someone that much. I now. I’m certain of it.”

“It is something I can touch and hold and I believe in, especially when love gets difficult and there are no small arms around my neck anymore.”

I think old God is a Sardine player. And will be found the same way everybody gets found in Sardines – by the sound of laughter of those heaped together at the end. Share on X

“It reminds me of an old Sufi story of a good man who was granted one wish by God. The man said he would like to go about doing something good without knowing about it. God granted his wish. And then God decided that it was such a good idea, he would grant that wish all al human beings. And so it has been to this day.”

“For others, it maybe an ordinary day. But the spirit of the season has been clear for a long time. God who it is said to started all this. Cared enough to send the very best.”

“I want my childhood back! . . . A child who is impractical, unrealistic, simple-minded and terribly vulnerable to joy. :)”

“An everlasting tandem: a liberation finally amounts to being free from things we don’t like in order to be enslaved by things we approve of.”

Fulghum’s Exchange Principle extends it: “every person passing through this life will unknowingly leave something and take something away. Most of this “something” cannot be seen or heard or numbered. It does not show up in a census. But nothing counts without it.”

“It’s about power (and the price) of imagination.”

“The Good Samaritan… I have wondered about the rest of the story. What effect did the charity have on the man. .. or did he remember the cruelty of the robbers? Which one shaped his life? What did he pass on to the strangers in his life? Those in need as he met?”

Everything you can imagine you can make it real – Picasso Share on X

Mother Teresa’s: We can do no great things; only small things with great love.

Peace is not something you wish for; it is something you make, something you do, something you are and something you give away.

There’s so much to share, but I leave it to you.

The ending? Well, I’d say it didn’t . . . Did I get you more curious?

I hope these lines encourages you to go find this book and don’t let it wait for a decade!

God bless,