“Share everything. Play fair. Put things back where you found them.”  These are among the essential life lessons listed in author Robert Fulghum’s 1986 “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”.

The Gazette would like to recognize Maryellen Kania, who recently resigned from Hampton Elementary School after teaching kindergarten for 20 years. In this role, she has instilled in our children these and all the other important lessons. Friendly yet firm, enthusiastic yet calm, gentle and kind and above all, patient, Mrs. Kania possessed all the traits required to successfully educate the very young.

Early childhood learning experiences serve as the students’ initiation, laying the foundation for children’s education in terms of confidence, expectation, exploration, pride for the rest of their academic careers. The social skills children acquire – compassion, empathy, sharing — are essential to their continued success in school. In kindergarten wonder is encouraged, creativity is developed, curiosity is nurtured, and children’s acceptance of themselves and others, within the community, is embraced.

We thank Mrs. Kania for success in fulfilling these goals, for inspiring children to “live a balanced life – learn some and drink some and draw some and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”