Are nursery rhymes corrupting young brains?
Think the violence on TV is bad? Well, what about nursery rhymes? Those poor kids, they’re going to the well, and next thing you know Jack’s got a major traumatic head injury and who knows what Jill’s fall will do to her. And it’s best not even to think about “Rock-a-Bye Baby.” Researchers in England went through nursery rhymes counting up all the violence. What the researchers wanted to know: What are the rates of violent episodes in nursery rhymes, and how does that compare with television? What they did: The researchers got the lyrics to the 25 nursery rhymes on the bestselling nursery rhyme compilation CD on June 24, 2003, on amazon.co.uk. Three of the researchers went through the nursery rhymes tabulating accidental, aggressive, and intentional violent episodes. Then. . .well, in their words: “The nursery rhymes were then recited, in turn, to the fourth researcher, and his response to them was noted. Nonverbal communication was the subject’s preferred means of communication. A rel
