The Credo, by Robert Fulghum

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.

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 one 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 we 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 as 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.


Explication:

This poem is a list poem by Robert Fulghum from his book "All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Kindgergarten". A list poem is one in which the writer starts his or her brainstorming for the poem by making a list and writes the poem from the list. The list poem is a very old form of poetry. It itemizes things or events. List poems can be of any length, rhymed, or unrhymed. In this case, "The Credo" is a standard list poem without rhyme.

His poem fits in nicely with my theme: childhood and youth. Robert Fulghum's "The Credo" is really the equivalent of an ode to youth. He finds many witty ways to personify youth and childhood and glorify it. For example, "Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School." When he lists "the things he learned", every item seems to echo a more innocent, peaceful time in our lives, when the rules were as simple as "play fair" and "put things back where you found them." As a result, the tone is generally humorous and playful. But nearing the end of the poem, Fulghum touches on a more serious message, to enjoy our youth and embrace others in our lives. That message is summed up in the last line, "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." "Hold hands and stick together" is repeated twice throughout the poem to emphasize the message.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this poem. Although it is at times silly and childlike, many lines are sagacious and enduring. My favorite line is "Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup — they all die. So do we."