School uses lullaby to teach kids about lockdown drills

SOMERVILLE, Mass. – A Massachusetts kindergarten class is drawing attention for using a lullaby to teach students about lockdown drills.

Taped to the classroom's chalkboard is a rhyme set to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," rewritten telling students what to do if there's a shooter.

It begins "Lockdown, lockdown, lock the door. Shut the lights off, say no more."

Parent Georgy Cohen noticed the poster while visiting the Somerville school Wednesday. She took a photo and posted it on Twitter, writing, "This should not be hanging in my soon-to-be-kindergartener's classroom."

In a statement, Superintendent Mary Skipper and city Mayor Joseph Curtatone applauded the teacher's creativity, but they lamented that lockdown drills have become as common as fire drills.

"As much as we would prefer that school lockdowns not be a part of the educational experience, unfortunately this is the world we live in," they wrote. "It is jarring — it's jarring for students, for educators and for families."

Source: School uses lullaby to teach kids about lockdown drills

You could make this insanity up, honestly. Yes, that is GREAT for a kid that young. Let's instill not only fear but the idea that a school shooter is so inevitable that you need to use a bedtime lullaby??!?!

They should handle it in the same manner as a fire drill. In fact a FIRE is so much more likely to happen than a school shooting that it could be used as training for both.

I need to get out of this state....the loons are clearly taking more of it over every flipping day.

a reply to: Krakatoa

where's the tune I thought I was going to hear Megadeath

wow my first double comment, gimme strawberry rubbarb jam.

a reply to: Krakatoa

You can hardly blame these educators for being overly paranoid!

After all, their living in the so called 'land of the free'... Where even a bat sh!t crazy criminal has the right to be armed... just so long as he hasn't been tried and convicted of a previous crime.

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: Krakatoa

You can hardly blame these educators for being overly paranoid!

After all, their living in the so called 'land of the free'... Where even a bat sh!t crazy criminal has the right to be armed... just so long as he hasn't been tried and convicted of a previous crime.

How can he be a criminal if he has not been tried and convicted of a crime? What kind of circular logic is that? See, here, we are innocent until PROVEN guilty in a court of law. In your country, that might be reversed and you need to prove your innocence. But, that is your problem.

Teaching children this stuff using what is supposed to be a calming and soothing lullaby is simply cruel IMO.

My first impression was outrage. Then, I realized I created my own lullabies to get my own children to remember tasks or learn something new when they were young. The fact that a lockdown is rarer than a fire drill is meaningless to those who experience it.

I don't blame tools...it is obviously a mental social issue that needs to be addressed. True, kindergarten age children seem young, but if they are having class in a school with older classes it is a fact they could be in danger.

I have to agree that the teacher is creative and teaching this in the best light. I doubt children are feeling fear when singing this. It is a game but when needed, they will easily remember what to do.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

Whoa, when I suggested pre-crime being a thing in the future I didn't expect you'd champion it.

Quite a few old nursery rhymes actually have a darker meaning, or other motivation behind them. It's odd, I didn't realize or take any meaning beyond having fun, but most were created decades before. I have never thought about what the kids recognized about them at the time.

I don't really know how I feel about this, often I believe parents often hold their children back from the reality of life and some it smacks a little to hard to come back from, but I just can't say this is a good thing.

Not much different than singing about the Black Death.

Ring around the rosies, pocket full of posies...

It's a nursery ryhme about using flowers to mask the stench of decomposing human bodies.

For what it's worth.

originally posted by: NthOther
Not much different than singing about the Black Death.

Ring around the rosies, pocket full of posies...

It's a nursery ryhme about using flowers to mask the stench of decomposing human bodies.

For what it's worth.

Y'know I never thought of it that way. Thanks for making that connection. Perhaps it is not as dire as I originally thought. However, I think that it should have been reviewed by the parents ans school staff first. That would allow for this discussion and realization of exactly what you stated above.

Again, thanks for that!

Roses are red
Violets are blue
We're gonna do our best
To instill the fear of guns in you

Lol..too easy