Phonological Awareness: Another Word about Mother Goose

Mary Mary quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells

And pretty maids all in a row.

The reason that the use of rhymes like Mother Goose is so effective in developing phonological awareness is that children do not understand the words (Please see discussion about phonological awareness in the previous post). This isolates the language from the meaning, focusing children upon the cadence and the rhyme. It is interesting to note, however, that nursery rhymes historically had at least two purposes. One purpose was educational, for instance "one, two, buckle my shoe." Another purpose was to comment upon events of that time period. Rhymes can have sinister undertones. The rhyme above is about Mary Queen of Scots. The garden refers to graveyards. Silver bells and cockle shells are believed to be instruments of torture. Finally, pretty maids all in a row are thought to be guillotines. Some parents might find these undertones disturbing for little children (even though, little children have been chanting these verses for over 30 generations, and today's children have absolutely no idea what the rhyme is actually about). But if these references give you the shivers, there's always Dr. Seuss. Just a head's up, parents, for informed decisions.