A Boston-area school’s rewrite of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” hanging in a kindergarten classroom to prepare kids for school shooter lockdowns sparks surprise and disgust online.
Georgy Cohen was touring her five-year-old daughter’s future kindergarten classroom Wednesday when she saw something she didn’t expect. On the wall of the Somerville, Mass., classroom were lyrics to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” except rewritten to teach kids about school shooter drills, Cohen wrote on Twitter. She posted a photo to Twitter of a brightly coloured poster in the classroom with the new lyrics:
Georgy Cohen was touring her five-year-old daughter’s future kindergarten classroom Wednesday when she saw something she didn’t expect. On the wall of the Somerville, Mass., classroom were lyrics to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” except rewritten to teach kids about school shooter drills, Cohen wrote on Twitter. She posted a photo to Twitter of a brightly coloured poster in the classroom with the new lyrics:
“Lockdown, lockdown, Lock the door,
Shut the lights off, Say no more,
Go behind the desk and hide,
Wait until it’s safe inside,
Lockdown, Lockdown it’s all done,
Now it’s time to have some fun!”
“This should not be hanging in my soon-to-be kindergarteners' classroom,” Cohen wrote on Twitter. Her post has been retweeted nearly 18,000 times and received nearly 40,000 likes and 1,800 comments.
“It’s jarring,” Cohen, who declined to name the school, told The Boston Globe. “When I was in kindergarten, we had fire drills. It was different we didn’t have these same types of threats.”But Cohen told the Globe that she understands the need to teach children about school safety and security.“These are the things they, unfortunately, have to do,” Cohen said. “I get it.”Somerville Public School officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the poster, according to the publication. Some people commenting on Cohen’s post found the rewritten song “horrifying” and “insane.” One called it “terrifyingly dystopian.”
Margot Bloomstein@mbloomstein
replying to @radiofreegeorgy
Jesus, that’s to the tune of the alphabet song, and Twinkle Twinkle... what a horrifying contribution to the songbook.
4:59 PM - Jun 6, 2018
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Genesee Larche@genesee_larche
Replying to @radiofreegeorgy @kharyp
I am 45 went to elementary school in CA. The only drills we had were for fires and earthquakes. This is truly insane.
2:34 AM - Jun 7, 2018
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Gloria S Kim@polyhedrally
replying to @radiofreegeorgy
Ring around the Rosie was about the bubonic plague so I guess this enters the history books as a similar artefact.
3:25 AM - Jun 7, 2018
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Ellie McIntosh@_emcintosh
replying to @radiofreegeorgy
This could not be more terrifyingly dystopian.
11:18 AM - Jun 7, 2018
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Others, however, agreed with Cohen that there’s a need for such lessons.“Until something more concrete is done to keep school shootings and such from happening, teachers have to do what they need to do to help keep their kids (and themselves) safe,” wrote one woman.
ð† ðñ Çhåð§@See_Spot_Tweet
replying to @See_Spot_Tweet and 4 others
Until something more concrete is done to keep school shootings and such from happening, teachers have to do what they need to do to help keep their kids (and themselves) safe.
3:37 PM - Jun 7, 2018
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Cohen wrote on Twitter that her daughter has already been doing lockdown drills in her pre-k classes. “Z was excited about it as a game to see if you can stay quiet for ‘one whole minute,’ ” she wrote.