THE Oxford dictionary defines common sense as this… good sense and sound judgement in practical matters.
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Sounds pretty straightforward, right?
If such thinking controlled the decisions we make then life would be far less complicated. So why are we letting political correctness muscle in on common sense?
Grazing through the news on Thursday night, one story amazed me.
Amidst all the death and destruction dogging the world at present – much of which could probably have been avoided had people read the Oxford dictionary definition of common sense – was a story about a move to ban kindergarten children from singing Baa Baa Black Sheep.
No, it’s not April 1.
Firstly, does a child in kinder have any real comprehension why the “black” in this famous rhyme has been thrust into the political correctness spotlight? No, they don’t. To them it’s a fun song to sing about a sheep and that’s how it should be.
Google politically incorrect nursery rhymes and it’s truly amazing how far people are taking things. From today we can no longer refer to Mother Hubbard as “old”. Too offensive. Snow White and the seven dwarfs. Mmmm, trouble brewing.
The story went on to outline how another teacher had banned children from singing Kookaburra sits in the old gumtree.
No, sorry, not because the gumtree would be just as offended as Old, ah, I mean Mother Hubbard, but that’s a good point.
No, it’s because the famous old (sorry, just habit)… let’s try famous and very popular traditional song goes like this:
Kookaburra sits in the old (get over it) gumtree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be!
Screeeeeech. What. Gay. Can’t you actually say that out loud? Of course you can because it’s all about context.
Turning to the old (oops, sorry again) trusty Oxford dictionary, gay actually means light-hearted and carefree in this song.
Under those circumstances banning this song or changing “gay” to “fun” as some people have done, means you are actually being offensive to anyone who wants to go through life happy. What a tragedy.
So the children who have happily sung this song since it was first penned back in 1932 for a Girl Guides competition have done so for nothing more than their own entertainment, blissfully unaware one day someone was going to try and make a political statement with the words and why.
That’s exactly how it should be.
Baa Baa Black Sheep states a fact. There are black sheep in the world, there are white sheep in the world and sometimes there are sheep of both colours.
Those trying to turn this into a major issue should really find something worthwhile to do in educating children properly and dare I say it, spend a few minutes looking up the definition of common sense in the Oxford.