Day 55 - Why are Nursery Rhymes so morbid?

I have a 2-1/2 year old son and our music system is being dominated by nursery rhymes now. As he learns the rhymes in school he recites them at home and we have to play these on the CD as well.

Twinkle Twinkle; Ba Ba Black Sheep and so on. But have you ever thought why some or most of the nursery rhymes are so morbid? I have been wondering that for some time now.

• Jack & Jill talks about tumbling down and breaking head.
• Humpty Dumpty talks about him breaking himself and no one able to put him together again.
• Rock-a-bye-baby, supposedly a lullaby, talks about the baby falling down from the tree.
• Goosey Goosey Gander talks about throwing an old man down the stairs.
• Three Blind Mice tails are cut by the farmer's wife
• In Ding Dong Bell the cat is thrown into the well
  
• ......................and there are some more.

I always wondered why would we teach our children such rhymes that talk about injury and don't seem to foster good manners. But no one seems to change these nursery rhymes and we still teach them. What do our children learn from these rhymes? And more importantly where did these nursery rhymes come from? What is their origin?

The internet is of course the best way to find out and I did.

• Jack & Jill is about the beheading of King Louis XVI (Jack) followed by Queen Marie Antoinette (Jill). But do we need to teach our children that? Why did schools start teaching this?
• Humpty Dumpty is actually a story of a huge cannon used during the English Civil War during the siege of Colchester.
• Rock-a-bye Baby does not have any such explanations. It refers to Native American Indians in US who used to put a cradle across two trees and rock their babies to sleep using the wind. Anyone in India would have seen this in most construction sites as mothers put their babies to bed using a cloth cradle.
  
• Goosey Goosey Gander refers to the fight in 16th century between Catholics and Protestants. If the Catholics were caught by the zealous protestants saying their prayers in Latin and not English as the Protestants wanted, the priest and the family harboring them were executed. Hence, 'there I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers'.
• Three Blind Mice refers to same period of Catholics v/s Protestants although in this case it refers to Catholic Queen Mary I who could not convert three Protestant nobles and so had them burnt at the stake. The nursery rhyme of course refers to them being dismembered and blinded.
  

Most of the nursery rhymes have hidden meanings and a historical perspective. If you want to know more about the history of nursery rhymes refer to http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ . Its a great site to do some fun reading. Another good site is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursery_rhyme

But I still cannot understand why English schools took these rhymes up to teach to their children. Thankfully the children were not taught the actual meanings of the rhymes and were just left to learn and sing them.

Frankly why can't we have some good rhymes teaching some good manners rather than these morbid ones?

Someone need to give this a thought!