What is up with some people who feel the need to change Nursery Rhymes, to sanitise them? Now they are going after Humpty Dumpty, wanting to change the line "couldn't put Humpty together again" to "Made Humpty feel happy again". Really what is wrong with some people?
Firstly this rhyme was originally a riddle, the Question at the end has been left off over the years. It asked what Humpty was - answer: an egg.
Secondly these type of old rhymes were often used as lessons for the hard things in life. Basically if you fall off a wall, there is the chance that you may not be able "to be put back together again". How many of us have reminded our children about Humpty when they unwittingly have put themselves in a similar situation. Just saying you may get hurt often doesn't get through to them. I'd rather quote a rhyme with a lesson to stop them from doing it than explain to a child why they have injured themselves.
When my daughter was 3 we were walking over a bridge and she saw some teenagers sitting on one of the bridge's side walls. She walked up to them and told them to get off there before they fell just like Humpty did. She wasn't traumatised but could see the consequences of what may happen. It's better to learn these lessons this way than to learn them the hard way.
Humpty Dumpty must have been my favourite nursery rhyme, between the ages of 2 and 5 I always asked for a Humpty Dumpty birthday cake.
1 comment:
I agree. Humpty has been a favourite of all my children, and many of the children at the pre-school I worked at for years. It was usually the first or second choice at music time. Non one ever worried that Humpty was broken beyond repair.
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