Impact of element of violence in Nursery rhymes upon children

Pakistan, ID LLCE2016-276;       Nursery rhymes  have been around as long as any one can remember and have been sung  to children    since we first started having them  .We make them recite nursery rhymes in school and  at home. Nursery rhymes  have been  the common thread throughout the fabric of childhood. Everywhere in the world Mother Goose nursery rhymes and other poems  serves as foundation  to education at beginners level. But what are the impacts of these  poems? We expose so happily our children to these poems  but in certain cases they have been obscure,  scary and contain unusual messages. The effects of poems  on children are remarkable.  Like violence watched through television  by children has the same impact of  reciting  violence in poems. Nursery rhymes emerged in the 18^th century as fragments of ballads or  folk songs remnants of  ancient customs, rituals  and traditions and may hold the last echoes of long forgotten evil. These rhymes were  never meant for children, many were political statements , couched in enough nonsense to protect the singer from being prosecuted for treason and  set  to a fun melody that was easy to remember and pass along. If children over heard , there was no real concern.  During the 17^th and 18^th centuries , children were not treated like kids but  more like adults in miniatures. So as the rhymes were published for kids. It was felt that they might cast a negative impact. In the early 19^th century writers like Samuel Taylor and Sarah Trimmer tried to alter the nursery rhymes to make them appropriate and suitable  for children because  it was claimed by educationist and critics that violent literature provokes fear and anxiety in children.  Thus being harmful models of behavior it was felt that they might inspire them with sadistic tendency exposing them to violence. The aim of this paper is to explore and analyses the extent to which  we subject our children to these poems  we  will look into the impacts of these poems on children whether this is something to be told or mere avoided.

 Key words: Nursery rhymes , childhood, violence