I could have printed the paper and went to bed, after a long day. But I did not. I read it faithfully, like a diligent student at school. And the paper I am talking about was the lyrics of a nursery rhyme for children. It is called 'Mary had a little lamb'. You may or may not be familiar with the lyrics so I will summarise it here (ha ha, in today's blog-post, I will practise the skills of summarising and paraphrasing!).
Mary is a little girl. She has a pet, a lamb whom she loves. One day, Mary took the lamb with her to school which 'was against the rules'. 'The children laughed to see a lamb at school', and the teacher pushed the lamb away out of the room.
As in children's rhymes and storybooks, the lamb is attributed human qualities; so when the teacher turned the lamb out of the class, the lyrics tell us that 'he waited patiently about...till Mary did appear'. The lyrics are interesting I think because there are many characters; each have their own point of view about why Mary took the lamb to school. We have the children who probably found it funny; the lamb and Mary; and the teacher.
The first time I listened to the song was on YouTube and I was okay with the teacher taking the lamb out of the room. It is well-justified in the song, 'it is against the rules at school' and so 'the teacher turned the lamb out'. But as I read the lyrics, I thought a little bit more about the teacher.
Later on, in the song, the love between the lamb and Mary becomes a talking-point among the children. They ask 'why does the lamb love Mary' (so much?). The lyrics end with the teacher commenting on the children's question, however. The children were focused on the lamb. But the teacher was more focused on Mary. He re-phrased the children's question, meaning that the children should not ask why the lamb loves Mary but rather 'Why does Mary love the lamb, you know?'.
As it happens, I listen to this song a few times, during the day, and fortunately or unfortunately, the things I have learnt about critical discourse analysis at Lancaster University was troubling me in the song. Usually, we won't blame a lamb (a pet) for their love for their owners. One assumption is that animals have less agency/power in comparison to humans. The fact that the teacher shifted the agency to Mary at the end of the song showed that perhaps the teacher was a bit cynical of Mary and critical of how Mary loved her pet so much. In the teacher's worldview, Mary was a naughty girl, who did something 'against the rules' and therefore is the one to blame in this unusual incident of bringing a lamb to school. In her attachment to her lamb, she was a bit 'bizarre' in the teacher's eyes.
"But what if there was hutch or a small house in the classroom where Mary could have kept her pet till she finishes her class?" I thought, as the traffic light turned green.
I forgot about the song for a few days (yaaaay!) till it found its way here!
Here is the link to the song, if you would like to have a look!
#Write to you again soon.
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