Oh, the pomp and circumstance

Well, it is official - I am college grad again. This time? A MEd (Masters of Education) in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in early childhood education. (and it only took 3 years - not too shabby!)

 

Sometimes it felt like just yesterday when I was starting the whole process, but other times it felt like I was never gonna make it. I wondered how even though I was working 40 hours weeks for the majority of my undergrad degree and I managed to complete all my work, then why was this degree so much more difficult? That's a simple answer hun, my hubby replies: "I don't remember you having a house, child, husband, and 22 other kids the first time around" Oh, yeah DUH


Our speaker last night (a former kindergarten teacher herself) during her speech recited a popular poem entitled "All I Really need to know I learned in kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum. If you have never heard this before, I share an excerpt with you now:

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 sand pile at 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 in 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 one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or 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 at about 3 o'clock in the 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 in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

How very, very true. I sat up there and began to get a little teary eyed. I realized that I wasn't just sitting up there for myself and my family (who are oh, so proud of me!). I did what I did for my "other 22 kids" who make it worth my while to get out of bed 5 days out of the week. They inspire me to do take risks and learn more to help prepare them for the future that lies ahead. 

(thanks Chad for videotaping)

• Thank you to Maddy and Dan who stepped up and helped make sure our lives ran as smooth as possible when I would lock myself in the office doing homework. 
• Thank you to my professors who taught me and made it so appealing to come back to my alma mater to get my master's degree and not some online university. 
• Thank you to all my family and friends who love me each and every day and are so proud of me at this very moment.
• Thank you to everyone who believed in me, threw in encouragement when I was down, and knew I could accomplish my dreams. 

Hooding by Dr. Couchenour

the fam

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