Permissiveness poetry
G. GEORGE OSTROM / For the Hungry Horse News
Permissiveness in 2010 continues to be a controversial approach to solving our nation's social problems in education, crime control, family life and even politics. Let's stroll back to see what this columnist thought about that twenty years ago.
Seems they never let up. They're at it night and day. I'm talking about those easy weepers and willy-nilly nerds who want to change all our good old Aesop Fables, nursery rhymes and fairy tales. This questionable use of life's allotted time and energy made its first intrusions into our lives during the early 1950s, when the national wave of permissiveness began in the handling of children and eventually … criminals. Apparently the original theory was to prevent mental trauma and psyche scarring in kids by insulating them from the harder facts of life.
Dr. Herman Kantor is one who wants to make the world a better place by concealing the existence of hurt and tragedy. As an example, the good doctor has rewritten those historical rhymes so that Humpty Dumpty gets patched up, Mother Hubbard finds some biscuits for her "poor dog," and he even created positive domestic intervention to upgrade the social life of the "old Lady" who lived in the shoe.
If you would like to spare your little children the alleged "bad stuff" in the originals, Dr. Kantor's latest book is called "Mother Goose and More." In there you will find that Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater has managed to find a house for his wife, and Jack Sprat put on a few pounds. Maybe he's even gone into weight lifting now and his wife is on a sensible diet. I haven't read the book.
Dr. Lee Salk, a nationally noted child psychologist does not agree with people like Dr. Kantor. He is quoted as saying, "In reality, there are times when endings are not happy. These stories (the originals' help youngsters deal with problems at the fantasy level and that helps them deal with problems at the reality level." I'm with Dr. Salk; however, I can see where those people who agree with Kantor probably have good intentions, along with a measure of pleasant mental challenges in rewriting our historic children's literature. Guess I'll try modernizing a few myself.
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
But never jump over a candlestick.
You could set fire to your attire,
Scorch ankles and knees and much higher.
Jack and Jill went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water,
Jack was knocked down for messing around,
Because Jill didn't think he oughter.
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey,
Along came a spider, and sat down beside her.
So she grabbed some spray and blew him away.
Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree top!
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
Down will come mamma for child neglect, et al.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Made a Humpty Dumpty omelet and ate it at ten.
Mistress Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells and a weed that really sells.
I have to go now. There are some nice men here with butterfly nets.
G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist.