Nursery Rhymes have been taught to children for hundreds of years, with many dating from the Middle Ages. They are the earliest educational tools that children use for learning language and counting skills. Additionally they combine movement and music teaching kids rhythm and melody.
But according to a recent study more than 40% of parents cannot recite a single nursery rhyme all the way through.
Many cultures around the world have their own indigenous nursery rhymes but most of the best known rhymes are from England and more recently the US.
Many nursery rhymes were originally political commentaries from a time when free speech was punishable by imprisonment or even death, especially if you criticized the government of the day.
Other rhymes allude to current events of the day. It is believed that Ring a Ring O’ Roses refers to the bubonic plague, while Remember Remember commemorates the Gun Powder Plot when Guy Fawkes and a group of conspirators attempted to blow up the houses of Parliament, an event that is still celebrated in England on November 5!
Some nursery rhymes are quite violent –
Rock A Bye Baby
Rock a Bye Baby
On the tree top,
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock
When the bough breaks
The cradle will fall
Down will come Cradle
Baby and all.
Or
Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill
Went up a hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down
And broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after
The earliest known collection of nursery rhymes was Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London, in 1744. But, probably the most well known was Mother Goose's Melody: or Sonnets for the Cradle, published by John Newberry in 1781. Reprinted in the United States in 1785 by Isaiah Thomas, its popularity is attested to by the fact that these verses are still commonly called "Mother Goose Rhymes" in the United States.
Although you may feel that you should try and rewrite some of the lyrics to make them less violent you shouldn’t. Psychoanalysts and educators believe that efforts to make nursery rhymes and fairy tales politically correct are a mistake. They feel that they provide a way to symbolically resolve issues and allow children to imaginatively deal with violence and danger.
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