Who is Mother Goose?

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Today, to my slight horror, I realized that my two charges had no idea who Mother Goose is. They knew three or four of the rhymes I asked if they recognised, but they didn't know Georgie Porgie, Little Miss Muffet, the old woman who lived in a shoe, Little Mary Quite Contrary, and a host of others.

The cultural literacy is changing folks.

So of course, I had to remedy the situation. I ran out of Mother Goose rhymes that I could remember off of the top of my head and so I started in on fairy tales.

"Who is Little Red Riding Hood?" So I had to tell them that one, too.

I must admit I wondered if maybe there was a reason that their mother hadn't told them a story about a wolf eating a grandma and a little girl, but they liked it so much they wanted me to tell it again.

And that led into the three little pigs. (Will their mother be okay that the wolf ended up in the fire place?)

And that into the three billy goats gruff. (I decided being introduced to so much death might be overwhelming, so the troll just met with an undisclosed end.)

And then they wanted more stories with animals, so I started on Aesop's fables.

Both of them were enraptured every minute until one ordered "Stop reading... I have to go potty" and then when he returned "Okay, you can start reading again now."

Is the oral tale so foreign?

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