All children learn to read
All children learn to read is a German nursery rhyme . It is sung to the tune of the song John Brown's Body . The text comes from Wilhelm Topsch . The song is about learning to read and is traditionallysungat school enrollment celebrations .
melody
The melody comes from the marching song John Brown's Body (also known as Glory, glory, hallelujah ), which also served as the basis for other popular songs, including the abolitionist hymn The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the union song Solidarity Forever . The authorship of the melody is unclear.
text
The well-known chorus of the song sings about the fun of learning to read:
All children are learning to read,
Indians and Chinese,
All Eskimos read even at the North Pole,
Hello children, here we go!
In the stanza text, animals or objects beginning with this sound are assigned to each vowel and diphthong (monkey, elephant, hedgehog, Easter bunny and ox, eagle owl, polar bear, car, owl).
Importance in primary school education
All children learn to read is not only intended to evoke the joy of reading, but also to help children memorize letters and associate them with sounds, thus supporting learning to read and write.
In many elementary schools in German-speaking countries, All Children Learn to Read is sung by the older children as a greeting for the children in the first grade on the day they start school. The song also appears in children's books about the first day of school.
Content criticism
All children learn to read is criticized both from an educational point of view and from anti-racism initiatives, as it solidifies post-colonial stereotypes and thus promotes everyday racism . Not only the obsolete terms " Indians " and " Eskimos ", but also the presentation of three formerly colonized population groups - Indians, Chinese and Eskimos - as a contrast to the children in Germany. The line “ Even at the North Pole all Eskimos read” devalues these groups by emphasizing that even they can learn to read. The fact that the melody of Glory, glory, hallelujah , which is in anti-racist tradition, is used for this text weighs particularly heavily.
In order to counter the first point of criticism, the line "Even at the North Pole all Eskimos read" is changed to "Even at the North Pole, reading is great," which leaves the other points of criticism.
Further use
A cover version of the singer Ina Colada reached the 57th place in the German single charts in 2010.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Stauffer, Benjamin Soskis: The Battle Hymn of the Republic. A Biography of the Song That Marches On. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-1998-3743-4 , pp. 44-46.
- ↑ Ursula Bredel , Astrid Müller, Gabriele Hinney (eds.): Writing system and acquisition of writing. Linguistic - didactic - empirical. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-023224-0 , p. 141.
- ↑ Examples: Conni comes to school by Liane Schneider , ISBN 978-3-551-04068-8 , or pepper, mint and the school of Irmgard Kramer, ISBN 978-3-7855-8258-9 .
- ↑ Sandra Rademacher: The first day of school. Pedagogical professional cultures in German-American comparison. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-16855-5 , p. 37.
- ↑ Tupoka Ogette: Why I order Christmas figurines with dark brown skin for my son. In: MiGAZIN . December 11, 2014, accessed July 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Open letter from various anti-racism initiatives: “Invitation to openly deal with hidden racism in children's songs, games, carnival costumes, etc.” , accessed on July 17, 2016.
- ↑ http://www.skg-forum.de/liederdruck/lied018druck.htm , accessed on July 17, 2016.
- ↑ Ina Colada in the German charts ( Memento of the original from July 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 17, 2016.
