Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Dark Origins Behind Popular Nursery Rhymes.




Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION


A.          Background of the Study

Nursery rhymes, as we know today, serve as a teaching method of parents and teachers towards their children and students. They usually have catchy tunes and lyrics that can be easily memorized by toddlers. They usually have an animal or an inanimate object as its main character, in order for children to easily remember them, and whenever it uses a person as its main character, their names would be really simple like: “Mary” or “Jack”. It is really easy to gain access to different nursery rhymes around the world; aside from having a widespread variety of choices that can be found in various websites in the internet, there is also a numerous number of nursery rhyme books that can be purchased in different bookstores in the country.

          We’ve always known nursery rhymes as silly songs children love to sing over and over again, however; many if the origins of the nursery rhymes we know today are believed to be associated with actual events in history. And the secret meanings of these nursery rhymes have been lost in the passing of time. A nursery rhyme was often used to parody the royal and political events and people of the day. Sometimes they are also used as secret messages that that reveal the truth about the vile and wicked monarchs rule the kingdom. To cut things short, the humbly rhyme was used as a seemingly innocent vehicles to quickly spread subversive messages. http://www.rhymes.org.uk/nursery-rhyme.htm



        Nursery rhymes teach children a lot of things. They are also a very vital part of a child’s learning experience in toddler and pre-school They are used to teach kids about literacy, patterns, alliteration, tone, and thyrhmn in a fun and exciting way, in order for the children to be stay interested while they learn. In some places, people have different use of nursery rhymes. Some are used to make the children fall asleep, others to teach them lessons and good values, some teach them as part of their history of culture and others to scare them so that they would not do anything bad. But whatever nursery rhymes that may be, and wherever it originated, there is always a hidden meaning to each and every one of them.




 “All cultures have nursery rhymes. They are small rhythmic poems recited or read to very little children, almost from babyhood. Their origins are often very old. Some of them were originally lampoons of royal and political events of the day. They were what children heard around them, almost like popular music today. They are a way to teach children many things. People who cannot read and write must remember all necessary knowledge. In man’s history, before widespread literacy, people passed history and knowledge to their children in stories and song. The rich and colourful images in stories and song helped children to remember and retain useful information and helped them to learn, from other people’s experience, the things that they would need for adult life and to remember their origins, genealogy, and history.” (Maria Collins)”


        Nowadays, I observed the almost every child knows how to sing nursery rhymes. Some of the most popular ones are: “Jack and Jill”, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Humpty Dumpty”. Aside from being easy to remember, some of these also have actions that go together with the song that makes it more interesting. Before they have ever watched cartoons and played with toys, one of the first things a child has learn to do was to sing or to dance to the tunes of nursery rhymes their parents teach them.

        However, as I have been researching, I have found out that almost all of the nursery rhymes we know today have a dark origin. Most of these rhymes come from Europe, particularly in England. They expose the scandals and controversies done by their nobles. The townspeople usually gossip about this, but since they are aware that they can be prosecuted but directly blaspheming the monarchs above then, they use rhymes to convey the message instead.

"Many of the nursery rhymes that we have read to our children have their origins in British history. Rhymes were written for many different reasons. Some rhymes were written to honor a particular local event that has since been forgotten, while others were written to express feelings of love. Rhymes were also used to hide real meanings, such as when someone wanted to express displeasure toward the government or the sovereign without being executed! Another reason for rhymes is that they’re easy to remember, and therefore could be spread by word-of-mouth—an essential feature for a large population of people who could not read or write.” (Natalie Kidd)

Historians say that these nursery rhymes, as we know today, had been secret messages that were used against the nobles of renowned houses. They revealed the truth about certain royals who had committed adultery against their spouses, vile and cruel deeds of a certain queen, etcetera. They also reveal the truth of how rotten their kingdom is. In the past, the townspeople were not allowed to say bad things or rumors about the people in authority. If they did, they would either be imprisoned or worse- killed. Even if they knew the despicable deeds of the noblemen who ruled over them the people did not have a right to say a word. They did not have the freedom of speech. But those townspeople and even the church did not want to keep silent, that is why they devised a way for them to spread the message to everyone, without the hierarchy to know what was really going on. They used nursery rhymes to pass the paper under the table. And in reality, nursery rhymes were not meant to be innocent kid’s music in the first place.



A.          Statement of the Problem

This study aims to answer the question:

1)   Would we still want to teach children nursery rhymes after knowing the truth about them?


B.          Significance of the Study

Parents and Teachers. This research paper would help parents and teachers learn more about the real meaning behind the nursery rhymes and their origin before they are they teach them to the children and students. It will also help them explain to the youngsters what truth lies behind the songs they are singing. Aside from that they can also assess whether a certain rhyme is suitable to be taught to child, and what effects it will bring to the psychological mind of the student.

Teenagers. Knowledge of the study will enable the teenagers to know the real meaning behind the rhymes they loved to sing as children. They will also know the mysteries that lie behind every line of the song, as well as their origin and background.

Writers. This study can help a writer’s imagination, because knowing the real meaning behind a seemly innocent nursery rhyme gives a new meaning to literature. Weather good or bad, it can also be a gate way for new ideas and stories that can be written down in the future.


C.          Scope and Delimitation

This study focuses on the real meaning behind different nursery rhymes as well as their effects on the lives of children. Their backgrounds and origins have also been considered, since they are vital for the research.

This study does not cover other field aside from the ones mentioned above due to the lack of time, and irrelevance to the focus of the study itself. Unpopular nursery rhymes coming from different countries have also been considered, however; they will not be of main focus.


D.          Materials and Methods

This research uses a descriptive method since the researchers aim to describe and discuss the different origins of nursery rhymes and if they are still suitable to be taught even though they have these dark meaning behind them. The method used was gathering factual data, analyzing and exploiting the data gathered.


E.           Definitions of Terms

Nursery Rhyme. A simple traditional song or poem for children.

Lyrics. A lyric poem or verse.

Inanimate. Not alive, esp. not in the manner of animals and humans.  Showing no sign of life; lifeless.

Blasphemy. The act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk.

Genealogy. A line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor: "combing through the birth records and genealogies". The study and tracing of lines of descent or development.


Chapter 2
DISCUSSION


Would we still want to teach children nursery rhymes after knowing the truth about them?

Origin and History of Popular Nursery Rhymes

        In this segment, the researcher will discuss the different origins of some popular nursery rhymes like “Jack and Jill” and “Ring Around The Rosie”.

"Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down, and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after"

          Jack and Jill is one of the most common nursery rhymes that children know of. It tells a short story of a boy and a girl who went up the hill to fetch a pail of water, but surprisingly, the boy fell down for some reason, and the girl came tumbling after.

        The nursery rhyme as it is, seems very cliché, however, there is a deeper and darker meaning that lies behind it.

King Louis XVI was a really cruel king. From the moment he was crowned, France's economy shot downwards, the crops died one by one and the prices of the food and bread rapidly went up. The livestock of many merchants went bankrupt and many people were dying of hunger. No one was happy about the state of their county at that time. To top it all off, Louis married an Austrian empress named Maria Antoinette. Most of the people in the 1700's were xenophobes (xenophobe- a person that has an intense irrational dislike or fear towards anyone who is not or their kind; racist), and they blamed Marie as the cause of all their problems. 

          Louis did not know how to handle the state of his country at the time so he decided to assemble the States-General. This is a national assembly that is represented by three "estates" of the French people. These are: the nobles, the clergy, and the common folk. The States- General had not been assembled since 1641, and the 'commoners' used this opportunity and declared themselves as the "National Assembly", igniting the French Revolution.

          The commoners revolted because they were already suffering from the rule of Louis XVI. He proclaimed himself as a "god" and that all the people must follow his orders. If they defy him, they would be sentenced to death. While his kingdom was suffering from hunger and famine, he and his wife were still living in luxury and extravagance.  http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com


"Ring-a-round the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down"

           Ring-a-round the Rosie is a usual game young children (most especially young girls) play. Everyone would hold hands together, and then they will turn around and around and sing the song until they all fall down and lie on the grass. It is somewhat similar to the Tagalog rhyme "Bubuka ang Bulaklak". To a child this song seems to be a ridiculous pass time for her and her friends to play, but in reality, this song has a deeper and darker meaning.

It said that this nursery rhyme is actually a song involving the Black Plague (also known as the Bubonic Plague) that dates back in 1665 or even way before the first outbreak in England that was in the 1300's. Back in the olden days, the people did not know what caused that wide-spread epidemic.

"In 1563, in London alone, over 20,000 people died of the disease. The Elizabethan City of London was filthy. Its population was growing continuously with poor people moving from the country to London in search of work. There was a total lack of a structured sewage system in Elizabethan London. All of the waste was just dumped into the River Thames. The River Thames is a tidal river and, as such, it would have acted like a natural sewer. But even so terrible epidemics of Black Death ( Bubonic Plague ) during the Elizabethan period still occurred. The spread was aided by the River Thames and its boats which were used as the major form of transport in London. The London streets were dark, narrow and dangerous and slow to travel through. Everyone used the river to move about and each London Elizabethan would have come into contact with the everyday presence of the dirt and the rats; a perfect vehicle for ensuring the spread of the disease in London. (Prove Oxford)"


Factors that influence nursery as a teaching medium


A.  Popularity

Nursery rhymes have been popular for a very long time, due to their interesting tune and the arrangement of words. Aside from that, they bring joy and excitement to little children everywhere.

A lot of parents agree that teaching nursery rhymes to their children make them more active and gives a large boost to their imagination. Some nursery even teaches children various house works and habits in an interesting way. The rhyme “One Two, Buckle My Shoe” teaches a step by step procedure on how to tie a shoelace, while “I’m a Little Teapot” describes what a teapot looks like and what it does.

Mother Goose rhymes have been popular ever since it was first published in the United Kingdom during the 18th century. It has been a craze on millions upon millions of children. Due to its success in both entertaining and training children various things, nursery rhymes quickly became an epidemic craze in different countries around the globe. Thus gaining its popularity. http://www.nurseryrhymesonline.com
 

  1. Educational Value and Literacy Rate

Studies show that people who have been exposed to nursery rhymes as children have a more creative way of thinking rather than those who were not. Aside from that, children who recited rhymes are said to be more intellectual and active. They will also learn a lot from mimicking the sounds and lyrics, especially when they recite it over and over again.

“Mother Goose rhymes can also pave the way for a love of books. “They’re the perfect first stories for young minds. They introduce the idea of listening from beginning to end as the narrative develops, but they’re short, so a child doesn’t have to sit still very long. As a child gets older, the timeline can be stretched, so you can read longer stories with a real plot. Rhymes that invite your child’s participation provide even more learning opportunities. When you play pat-a-cake, for example, your baby learns to clap his hands and to recognize his own name.”  (Charles Smith, Ph.D.)


  1. Tradition

In some countries, it is a tradition for them to recite nursery rhymes to their children. There are parts of India wherein the tribe leader usually recites rhymes to the youngsters for them to subconsciously be aware of the history of their clan and the epic tales of their tribesmen that lived long before they did. There are times that they use nursery rhymes to disseminate information to each other, so that the people who are outside their circle wouldn’t understand what they are talking about.

Traditional Nursery Rhymes have been passed down generation from generation and has been with us for a very long time. Like the lullabies our mothers use to put us to sleep, nursery rhymes also have an impact in our lives and the way we are growing up. Different nursery rhymes from different places have their own special meanings behind them. It has always been part of our tradition and it will continue to be passed down to the generations yet to come.

Researcher’s Inference

          The researcher has come up with an inference, that nursery rhymes are vital for the education of children because they enhance the child’s ability to comprehend different words and understand the difference of rhyming words and non rhyming words. Rhymes also improve the children’s musical intellect.


Chapter 3
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS


SUMMARY:

This paper is attempted to determine whether or not nursery rhymes should still be taught to children despite knowing about the real meaning behind them.
The research designed that was used in this study is called a “descriptive research method” in which data from different sources (like books and articles) were used to answer the research question. The research findings are the following:

1)   Most of the popular nursery rhymes we know today actually have dark origins and gruesome histories that are not suitable to young children.
2)   Not all the nursery rhymes we know have a hidden meaning. Some are just created for entertainment.
3)   Nursery rhymes are able to teach children how to remember word formations and also make them adept in reading and listening to stories from the start to the end. They also teach motor skills are able to make children musically inclined.
4)   Teachers agree that the students who have been exposed with nursery rhymes are more active than those who weren’t.
5)   The most popular nursery rhymes were said to be created by Mother Goose and had been published in the 18th century.


CONCLUSIONS:

Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn.

1)   Since not all of the nursery rhyme have a dark origin, it is still advisable for parents and teachers to expose the children with these rhymes, especially because they teach them a lot of skills that they are going to use as they grow older.


RECCOMENDATIONS:

1)   Before a parent or teacher teaches a new rhymes to the student it is better to study them first so that when the child is confused by the real meaning behind certain rhyme, they can explain it properly to them.
2)   When exposing a child to a nursery rhyme one must consider what the child would learn in the rhyme that will be taught to him.


References:

  1. Book

Kidd, N. (2012). The Hidden History of Nursery Rhymes

Collins, M. (2007) Nursery Rhymes and Their Culture

Oxford, P. (2008) Ring Around The Rosie: Bubonic Plague

Smith, C. (2011) Effects of Mother Goose Rhymes


  1. Electronic Media

                     “Introduction to nursery rhymes” Retrieved: August 14, 2013 from:http://www.rhymes.org.uk/nursery-rhyme.htm

                      “Jack and Jill” Retrieved: August 14, 2013 from: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com

                       “Why nursery rhymes are popular”  from: http://www.nurseryrhymesonline.com