Violence Common In Nursery Rhymes

Hi Everyone,
I just read this article about Violence in nursey rhymes on MSN. I never really thought twice about nursery rhymes... they were just little rhymes that children would recite.. and most of us 'grown ups' know them by heart also, because they've been around forever. But.. this article kind of surfaces a little problem.. I don't think nursery rhymes ever were meant to invoke childhood violence.. but... hmm, I don't know, this study makes a slight point. I pasted the article below.

Violence Common in Nursery Rhymes
Classic Tales Compared With Violence on British TV

By Miranda Hitti

Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Wednesday, November 17, 2004
WebMD Medical News




Nov. 17, 2004 -- Do Little Miss Muffet, Jack and Jill, and the Incy Wincy Spider need a rating system especially when it comes to categories for violence? Traditional nursery rhymes have more than 10 times the number of violent scenes per hour as British TV, according to a new study.

Researchers including Patrick Davies, MD, of England's Bristol Royal Hospital for Children compared violence in nursery rhymes with violence shown on five British TV channels.

They studied data on TV violence shown over two weeks between 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., when kids were most likely to be watching.

There were 1,045 violent acts on TV during that time, with 51% of programs containing violence.

The experts also tracked down the most popular audio compilation of nursery rhymes. They analyzed violence in 25 tales including Humpty Dumpty, London Bridge Is Falling Down, and Rock-A-Bye Baby, and recited the stories to a toddler, whom they called their "fourth researcher."

"Television has 4.8 violent scenes per hour and nursery rhymes have 52.2 violent scenes per hour," say the adult scientists.

Forty-one percent of the nursery rhymes contained some kind of violence, whether accidental, aggressive, or implied.

The result of violence was shown or mentioned twice as often on TV as in nursery rhymes. That means kids are often left to imagine the outcome of nursery rhyme violence. The possibilities they imagine "may be more disturbing than having the outcome spelled out," say the researchers.

"That noises in the dark are caused by the resident monster under the bed is well known to any child, but adults are more likely to blame passing wind or other natural phenomena," they write in the December issue of the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The study doesn't call TV harmless. Instead, it indicates -- with a wink and a nod -- that it's misguided to only blame violent behavior by children on TV.

The problem predates TV and probably has many causes, say the researchers.

"Reinterpretation of an ancient problem through modern eyes is difficult, and laying the blame solely on television viewing is simplistic and may divert attention from vastly more complex societal problems," they write.

Here is the link: http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/97/104078.htm?GT1=5809

 

That's so true. London Bridge is about the war. Ring Around the Rosy is about the smallpox epidemic. The rosy colored ring was a sign of smallpox. "Ashes, Ashes" is because they burned all the clothes and everything from a person with smallpox. "We all fall down" is because so many people were dying. And if you want to really scare a little one, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Rock a Bye Baby is about falling out of a tree. These are all really scarey for little ones. We got to get better nursery rhymes.

Kathi

 

drumminmamma, I love that.

there's tons of positive kid's songs, plus you can alter them to make em better. Rock-a-bye baby, change the end to "and mommy will catch you, cradle and all"

ring around the rosy, well kids don't get it anyway, and there's other games to play, like sleeping bunnies (the little one at my pre-school love that one). If you guys want to know any new ones, I know tons, just PM me, but I bet you all know em all anyway

 

As a history major I must point out that Ring Around The Rosy was originally about Black Plaque. When Smallpox became more endemic it was adapted. Orignally the rosy colored ring represented the rash of blisters plaque victims had, "pocket full of posies" spoke of the fact that people died so quickly there was no time to bury everyone right away so people held flowers in front of their faces to cover the stench, ashes ashes refered to the burning of bodies and homes infested with plague, and we all fall down is self-explanatory. My guess is that 100 years from now people will adapt it again to represent the AIDS epidemic.

I agree with you about Rock-A-Bye Baby.

 

The thing is, kids can't be protected from every little thing... what next, are kids going to wear 10 layers of bubblewrap everytime they leave the house? I don't see anything wrong with these nursery rhymes... kids' stories used to be scary. Anyone ever read the original story of the Little Mermaid? Ariel has her tongue cut out, and her sister die and turn to seafoam. Or what about the story of Struuewlpeter (sp?) It was pretty scary, and was actually the inspiration for Edward Scissorhands. These stories are generations old, and the people back then didn't seem to have too many "emotional" issues from them. Alright, start the neg rep.. I can take it...

 

I agree, Many parents today are Waaay over protective. We all grew up with these songs and we all turned out OK.

The worse thing you can do is shelter a child too much. It will make the real world too much for them to handle.

 

Totally agree, the meanings go over most kids heads anyway.

 

You're right, it was the Plague and not smallpox. When I was writing the post smallpox was the only thing I could think of that was so deadly. Either one were bad. And you're right, 100 years from now it will be AIDS they are talking about.

Kathi

 

I think it's important to put nursery rhymes (and fairy tales, which are often brutal, as well) in perspective. The times in which they originated were much more violent than the times that we live in now--life was rather brutish, and often rather short. For example, in rural areas of France--even until the late 18th Century--children were not really considered part of a family until they were two to five years old, because infant mortality rates were so high. With both parents and older siblings working, children were rarely supervised by anyone over the age of five or six, and accidents were frequent; also, as other people have mentioned, mortal illness was seen as a normal part of life. Nursery rhymes, folk tales, legends, myths, etc. were means of coping with the harshness of life, as well as a form of entertainment. I don't think there's any harm in them. They're merely a way of remembering, an oral history--not an instruction manual for life. I don't think it will hurt my son to sing "Ring Around the Rosy" any more than it will hurt him to read an account of the American Civil War, because they are both a part of history, and

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it!"



Anyway, kids learn how to live mostly through the example of their parents, so if you treat your kids (and other people) with respect, it doesn't really matter what nursery rhymes they say, or what books they read. Kids who are raised in non-violent homes, who are given plenty of love and attention, tend to be averse to violence, because nothing has desensitized them to it.