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[Mephistopheles]

DON'T PUT HUMPTY BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

A children's literature expert says changes made to the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty are part of a worrying trend in society.

In the United Kingdom, the BBC is under fire for rewriting Humpty Dumpty to give it a happy ending on the CBeebies children's program Something Special

Instead of the last line saying "couldn't put Humpty together again", the new version claimed all the King's horses and all the King's men "made Humpty happy again"

June Factor, who has spent nearly four decades researching and writing children's books, says such moves to "sanitise" story-telling is very concerning.

"It's a sad sort of ignorance involved. It's completely unnecessary, it's a misjudgement and it's foolishness," she told ABC News Online.

"I am concerned about this misunderstanding and misreading of human development, and in many ways there are quite serious restrictions being placed on children

"It's a worrying trend because there is, in countries like England and Australia, a strange panic about children

"The idea is that children should be protected against all risk and in this case they are seeing a psychological risk. On the contrary, it's a psychological strengthening you gain from this material."

Dr Factor, an honorary senior research fellow at the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne, says unnecessary changes have been made to children's tales for generations.

And she says those who "bowdlerise" children's literature do have good intentions, but they are missing the cultural and historical point of nursery rhymes and fairytales.

"Their intentions are always admirable - the path to hell is paved with good intentions. They are hoping to make sure children aren't frightened but of course they are omitting the purpose," she said.

"[Nursery rhymes] are not there as a cotton ball to protect children from the world. They are a way of exposing children to the world from the safety of someone's lap."

Dr Factor says scary tales are meant to teach children about dangers in the world.

"Fairytales are full of very grim life experiences - dead parents, being left in the woods, there's tricksters and dangers - and what they do for children is a whole number of things," she said.

"It's a way of approaching the world for children in symbolic ways so they do gain some understanding of the world but they don't actuallty have to go out and experience the big bad wolf or whatever.

"They are about courage, resilience, quick-wittedness, patience and they are all about hope."

Children are becoming way too precious.

On a somewhat related tangent, childhood depression is increasing because of the idea that parents have, where we must bolster kids' self esteem and tell them they're wonderful and everything even when they're not.

It's okay for able kids, but for less able kids, the discrepancy between how wonderful they're made out to be and how wonderful they actually are makes them depressed because there's no way in hell they could ever be that great and it just gets them down.

(No reputable source for this, but I quote my psychology lecturer)

[Emperor Fadeaway]

Depression is when your opinion of yourself is disconnected from a reality which you can no longer ignore.

That's all it is. Nothing more, nothing less.

Everything else about it is window dressing, extraneous irrelevant bullshit designed to mask this obvious truth.

Acceptence is the cure. People should just accept how shit they are, and love themselves anyway. IT'S EASY. And you don't need drugs to do it. Just decide to do it.

So, we should be letting children be as shit as they are, rather than force them to maintain some ideal of perfection which 99% of them will fail to achieve. Tell them they are crap, but being crap is OK and we love them anyway.

Don't tell crap people they are great, the truth will out in the end and when it does it will fuck them up more.

I'm never wrong...

[Mephistopheles]

Yes you are.

Your first statement was wrong.

Depressed people see themselves as they actually are. Everyone else thinks they're better than they actually are.

[Emperor Fadeaway]

As if

[Mephistopheles]

there is empirical evidence

[Bookworm.]

Fadey, you're an idiot.

If you wanna get technical, depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain. Nothing more or nothing less.

Except that nothing is ever really that simple. What bee said is actually very true.

[Mephistopheles]

Of course. I paid/will pay good money for that piece of education.

[Bookworm.]

Damn straight.

[Frazzy?]

I for one, applaud this change. I have nightmares about kings men and horses being bad at reconstructing Humpty all the time, but perhaps they shouldn't have asked the horses to help at all, they don't have thumbs and aren't particularly gentle with fragile stuff...

[Mephistopheles]

I never thought twice about nursery rhymes.

all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn't put humpty together again

..okay, can I go to lunch now?

[Frazzy?]

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water
Jack didn't fall down because he held onto the guard rail
and they were both careful not to waste any water.

[Mephistopheles]

lol wtf... it doesn't even rhyme anymore.. or flow, coz the original one didnt rhyme either

[Frazzy?]

rhyming causes ADHD, like red cordial, now be a good girl and take your amphetamines.

London Bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down,
you should have called the National Security Hotline.

[Thaluikhain]

London Bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down,
you should have called the National Security Hotline.

 

[Frazzy?]

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had too many children, but centerlink paid her;
She gave them some happy meals without any fries;
and she never smacked them because that is abuse.