Story Time is Politically Correct

Every Wednesday, Ela and I go to story time at a library near our house. It's good for us in several ways. 1) It gets us both out of the house. 2) It gets me exercise, since we walk there. 3) It allows Ela to meet people her size. 4) It reinforces for Ela that books really are fun (not that she really needs it, but it doesn't hurt). 5) It teaches me, or reteaches me, the fun little rhymes and songs that people use with their babies. I have a pretty good memory, but most of what we sang as kids is gone from my head now. When I hear it in story time, it comes back pretty quickly, but I need that jump start to get to it. I'm growing a pretty good list of hand games and songs that Ela likes.
Once in awhile, though, I hear a song and I think "I know this" but discover it's been changed in the almost thirty (yikes!) years since I was young enough to appreciate it. Sometimes, it's an improvement. This was the case for "Ten Little Indians." It's a pretty basic counting song. When I was little, we held up our fingers and sang "one little two little three little indians" and so on up to ten. The library story time doesn't count indians. Most days, they count bubbles. At the end of the song, "Ten little bubbles go pop pop pop!" and we all clap our hands. This makes a little more sense than counting indians, in my opinion. In the other version, which can be sung in either Spanish or English, we sing "two little hands and ten little fingers" first, and then we count the fingers, which makes even more sense. Also, it gives kids a chance to practice a little bit of Spanish, and I'm always for encouraging multi-lingualism.
However, there are other songs that should have been left alone, and one of those is Little Bunny Foo Foo. I'll be honest, I can't remember all the words to this song as we sang it back in the day, but I do remember, quite clearly, that it involved scooping up some imaginary creature and boping it on the head. That part was fun. It was a story song about a bunny wandering around and being naughty. Occasionally the good fairy would come by and tell him to cut out the naughtiness. The song had a moral, too. The bunny eventually got turned into a goon for boping things on the head because hitting is wrong, right? And we all said that cheesy phrase, "Hare today, goon tomorrow." Not anymore. Now, the story is that Little Bunny Foo Foo wanders through the forest to play. No naughty behavior at all. Occasionally, for no apparent reason, the good fairy stops by and tells the Bunny to hurry up, so he wanders a bit faster. Finally, his mother calls him home, and off he goes.
I'm totally annoyed by this adjustment. For one thing, it's not nearly as fun. Sure, the kids get to walk, hop and run in place, but it just doesn't seem nearly as cool as the fun boping motion we used to have. I don't know why. May be that's just my perception because I like the old one better. The bigger issue, though, is that the story doesn't make sense any more. Also, I don't really know what was wrong with the old version. Sure, the kids used to practice that naughty behavior (and enjoy it) but 1) how naughty was it really? and 2) they were taught that this was wrong as they were listening. I can't figure out why it was changed, and I think it was changed for the worse. May be someone reading this will disagree and explain it to me.
My mom works at a church that has a preschool, and she assures me that Little Bunny Foo Foo is still sung in the old way there, so that makes me feel better, but I still feel a little irked every time we sing it at story time. I'll have to look up the old words and teach it to Ela the right way when she's old enough to enjoy it. In the mean time, we enjoy the other songs and games at story time. It's a good break in the middle of our week, and always educational!