Kindergarten through second grade. Even now, in my mid-thirties, I’m trying to return to the state of mind I occupied during those years. It was a brief period of time BEFORE limiting beliefs and the acknowledgement of my circumstances, rote learning, and the destruction of creativity.
I remember these years so clearly. I believed anything was possible and that I could do anything. I had zero awareness of the limiting beliefs prevalent in my family’s ethos, and they hadn’t had time to permeate my brain and effect the way I view the world.
Everyone was equal and their imperfections made them special. There was no hierarchy and nobody was judged based on where they came from or how much / little they had. Sure I like hanging out with some kids rather than others, but I saw everyone as being a candidate to be a friend. Everyone was tolerate of others.
Learning was necessary, fun, and mixed in with other playful activities. There was very little separation between work and play. Work WAS play and play was work. We looked forward to EVERY activity throughout the day and our enthusiasm carried from beginning to end. Everything the school taught was useful and practical. It was the foundation that everything else was built, there were no extras or subjects we thought as boring or useless. We learned the concepts and appreciated the simplicity of the principles. There was very little memorization or rote learning. We weren’t looked at like robots or factory workers, but as unique creative little individuals.
I loved making people laugh. Not by being the class clown or being disruptive and obnoxious, but with jokes. Even at that young age I saw comedy as useful and creative. While learning to read, I always made sure I had a joke book in my arsenal and would be quick to share with other classmates when we had time to interact — and the beauty was, we always had time to interact. It was a social time, and I appreciated that.
Imagination was on blast. I had a friend named Stephen B, and he and I would spend countless hours making things (mostly from construction paper and pipe cleaners). I remember we would make everything from cars and motorcycles, to wearable gadgets. We would build things that were interesting or made our lives easier, and were given the time and resources to do so. Anything was possible, and that attitude was nurtured, not squashed.
It’s funny how quickly some of these things / attitudes were reversed in the subsequent school years. It’s unfortunate, but I’ve attempted to make the best of it, and will strive to return to this ‘perfect’ state of mind that I occupied so long ago!
