Nursery Rhymes And Their Negativity
A few months back, my son got admitted to the playschool. Everything on the learning and development front was going absolutely fine until one day we had this conversation:
Me: “Finish your roti, Pratap! You have to grow tall and strong like Papa!”
Pratap: “Mumma, I’ll become strong like Papa और फिर मैं तुमको मार भगाऊँगा!”
I was shocked to see this coming from a 2.3 year old! In the coming days I experienced many more instances where he told me about somebody hitting and driving away somebody else.
After a lot of research on what’s actually going on in his mind, I could discover the reason which was this:
-लाल लाल टमाटर
-बड़ा मजेदार
-एक दिन उसको चींटी ने खाया
-हाथी को भी मार भगाया!
He was taught this rhyme in school and he was but obviously told that if he ate well he would become ‘strong’ and for him, strong meant – becoming strong like the ant who could even drive away the elephant.
I immediately brought this to his teacher’s notice who made sure every care was taken so that he never repeated such words in the future and at home I and my husband asked him to recite the poem a several times but every time, like this:
-लाल लाल टमाटर
-बड़ा मजेदार
-एक दिन उसको चींटी ने खाया
-हाथी को भी दोस्त बनाया
Trust me, it had a significant impact on him and things changed for good. But what worried me was, other age old classic nursery rhymes that are actually pretty negative in themselves. As I ran through other nursery rhymes’ books and videos, I came across these:
1.
WHY DOES THE LONDON BRIDGE NEED TO FALL? WHY NOT BUILD IT UP AND LET IT BE!
2.
WHY DOES HUMPTY NEED TO DIE AT THE END OF THE RHYME?
3.
ARE RAINS BAD FOR THE NATURE? WHY DO THEY NEED TO GO AWAY?
4.
WHY DO THEY NEED TO MENTION AN ACCIDENT HERE?
5.
IS IT RIGHT TO BEHAVE WITH OLD PEOPLE IN THAT WAY?
6.
WHY TO TALK ABOUT THE HEAD BUMPING ACCIDENT?
7.
ARE SPIDERS REALLY THAT HORRIBLE? THEY ARE HARMLESS UNLESS YOU HARM THEM.
8.
DO FISH REALLY BITE? THEY’RE ACTUALLY SO ADORABLE!
9.
WHY TO TALK ABOUT ANY MISHAP WITH SUCH A SMALL BABY? THIS GENERATES FEELINGS OF INSECURITY IN PRESCHOOLERS.
10.
DO WE WANT OUR CHILD TO LEARN ABOUT STEALING, CRYING OR BEATING?
Though there are other nursery rhymes also that are totally positive but most of the ones that my son is learning have some or the other negative thought in them and it kind of scares me to expose him to them. Just because we learnt these in our childhood, does it mean that, we want our kids to learn these too? I probably need to re-write these rhymes for my son and then they would be fit-for-recitation!
Do let me know your views on this in the comments section below!
