Political Commentary from Elementary School Students  

Fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students in the Agnes Russell School at Teachers College, Columbia University in the early 1970s were familiar with Eve Merriam’s The Inner City Mother Goose and with Paul Dehn’s adaptations of Mother Goose rhymes and created their own rhymes in response to then-current events. Kay Vandergrift, school principal and poetry teacher at the time, found some examples of those student compositions recently when clearing out old files in preparation for retirement. Unfortunately, author attributions were lost, but if any 40+ year old former ARS students happen to read this and recognize their elementary school political commentary, please contact Vandergrift for full acknowledgement of your work.

Nixon, Agnew and LBJ (After Georgie Porgie)

Nixon, Agnew and LBJ
Kissed the boys and sent them away.
When the boys came back to complain,
Nixon, Agnew said, “Arrest them again.”

Vietnam ’s Little War (After Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Vietnam had a little war,
Little war, little war
Till the U.S. made it bigger.
The children used to laugh and play,
Laugh and play, laugh and play
Till the U.S. pulled the trigger.
War is such a simple thing,
Simple thing, simple thing.
War is just a simple thing
For simple-minded Nixon.

Sing a Song of Soldiers (After Sing a Song of Sixpence)

Sing a song of soldiers
Gunning down the Coms
Four and twenty big bombs
Dropped on Vietnam.
If it is a fair fight,
The soldiers all do run.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary (After Mary, Mary Quite Contrary)

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With bomb shells and bullet holes,
And dead Commies all in a row.

Why May I Not Put Flowers on Johnny (After Why May I Not Love Johnny)

Johnny will go to Vietnam,
And Johnny will fight and die.
Johnny will go to Vietnam;
His parents will cry and cry.

And why may I not put flowers on Johnny?
Because our dear Johnny is dead.
And why may I not put flowers on Johnny?
Because he has a bullet in his head.

Reading these rhymes today, one might recall the social and political climate at Columbia University in the late 1960’s and early 1970s, but one is also struck with how contemporary they would be with just a few substitutions of names: George W, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Iraq, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, etc. Of course, whether a reader considers such rhymes humorous or objectionable, as mentioned by Janet Zarem below, depends upon that reader’s social and political views and convictions.

"I had read several years ago that traditional nursery rhymes were no longer recognized by many young children because both parents and kindergarten teachers had, in an apparent cultural shift, concluded they were either too violent or too sexist. Of course, many are violent or sexist. (How about that Peter the pumpkin eater anyway? Why doesn't his wife just divorce the jerk? Or at least insist on couples therapy? And Little Miss Muffet? I read that when that spider sat down beside her, she decided to become a biologist.) If I remember correctly, Rosemary Wells/Iona Opie’s Mother Goose books have traditional rhymes that largely eschew the problematic (thought that's not true of all the illustrations). "Seems to me that as all our former cultural icons crumble, the pace of fractured fairy tales, politically-expurgated nursery rhymes, serious rewritings, and new explorations of traditional stories (some of which are humorous) is bound to gain momentum." Since these stories are both in the public domain and from an oral tradition, it’s just an extension of their lineage, whether or not we may find a particular example objectionable for aesthetic or other reasons. " --from Janet Zarem on ChildLit sent 1/12/03