Parent Alert: Is Ms. Rachel Ruining Childhood?

Hey there. Today is Wednesday, October 14th, 2026. We got a big question. Is Miss Rachel ruining childhood? We're talking about it. I mean, when is it okay? Is it ever okay for children's entertainers or teachers to broach political issues with kids? Big ongoing question. Plus, you will not believe what New Hampshire's state education department is doing with homeschooled kids parent alert starts right now watch here we go let's roll the clip so what's your take some nursery rhymes and kid songs need to be retired 100 agree it's time for a new crop yes but which ones okay some i think can be changed like i feel like the three little kittens should not be denied the pie how does that one go three little kittens they lost their mittens and they began to cry and then and then the mom's like you naughty kittens you can't have any pie oh that's so sad and i feel like she can give them some strategies for not losing the mittens all the time right so that would maybe change a little bit i'm not super against that one okay it's it's like okay and then okay peter peter pumpkin eater i'm so against how does that one go had a wife but couldn't keep her so he kept her very well like in a pumpkin shell he imprisons his wife in a pumpkin shell Yes, yeah. Who made that one? I don't know. Okay, so the ones that really need to be retired are racist ones. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Which ones are racist? Jimmy Crack Corn, Oh Susanna. There's quite a few that Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe. Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe? Yeah. People are like, what will we do? What will we do? And I'm like, you know how many wonderful nursery rhymes and kid songs exist? And we can make new ones. Like, it's okay. I have a bath time song that's like, brush, brush, brush your teeth. brush brush brush your teeth brush brush brush your teeth now wash your hands i think you should make up a whole like book that's called Father Kareem's nursery rhymes, like if I became Father Kareem, that would erase everything, stop everything don't have, isn't this so, isn't this all so exhausting, is anyone else exhausted by the overthinking, that clip was from Subway Takes with Kareem Rama on YouTube. I've got a few hot takes all about that. I actually watched a little bit more of the episode on YouTube and I'll share it with you, but I got hot takes. As soon as I get through this very first intro, don't go anywhere because I have to say welcome to Parent Alert Logistics, right? I'm Jill Simonian from PragerU Kids. You are watching live right now. If you're watching me live, I am live streaming. I am in the chair. We are talking one-on-one. Drop me a comment where you're watching from. Parent Alert happens every single Wednesday at 1030 a.m. Pacific time here on PragerU's Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X. And later this episode is going to be over on our website, PragerU.com/ParentAlert Okay, I did that as fast as I could because I have to get back to Miss Rachel's wishful cancellation of some of America's most familiar nursery rhymes. And listen, the clickbaity tease at the top of this episode was, in fact, is Miss Rachel ruining childhood? I mean, that's a big question that we can all talk about. Listen, all of you who know me know that there is the side of me who is the adult personality commentator here at PragerU talking to you parents here on Parent Alert. And we talk about very serious issues, mom to mom, parent to parent. And then there's also the children's entertainer side of me where your kids can watch me read all of the Aesop's Fables stories, or you can watch me sing in our music show, which I'll get to in a little bit, or you hear me as the voiceover in our Unboxed series about state history over on PragerUKids.com. So I get that people who are children's personalities can definitely have opinions about things. I am not discrediting that, right? We live in the United States of America. Everyone can think how they want. Everyone has the freedom to think about things reasonably or unreasonably, as frustrating as that is sometimes. But we live in America and we have the right to do that. So that said, I got to react to the clip. And here's hoping that you saw the clip. We're not going to run it again. But producer Adam in the booth, if we're able to just pull up maybe a still shot of the clip so people can reference kind of what I'm talking about. We don't have to run it, but if we can pull it up, great. If not, I'm going to recap for you. So what's your take? Some nursery rhymes. Yeah. Oh, maybe not. It's okay. This is a live show. That was us proving to you that we're live. See how I did that? Here we go. I'm going to recap for you. Kareem, the host, calls for a new crop of nursery rhymes, which my response is, so you want to erase all cultural literacy and cultural history that unites us from one generation to the next in this country. Okay. Rachel doesn't like that the three little kittens were denied their pie for being irresponsible and losing their mittens. So my response to that is, okay, so Miss Rachel, you're endorsing and enabling a consequence-free worldview. I mean, if we're going to overthink these nursery rhymes, then I'm going to sit here and overthink them with you. And check this out. Regarding Three Little Kittens, this was actually, I found this. I'm going to nerd out, you guys. This is, okay. New Music Horizons. This is this book. It's obviously very old. It says California State series. This is a surprise to my producer. He didn't know I was going to bring this because, quite frankly, I didn't know I was going to bring this. You open the page, New Music Horizons, first book. I found this. This was in one of my grandmother's homes, okay? And it might have been the grandma who was a public school teacher. I can't remember. But this here, table of contents, this here, I want to read this for you. It's from 1950 when the state standards here in California and quite frankly, probably the national standards for education included nursery rhymes and music songs as a portion to establish cultural literacy in our youngest learners. So this here, the acknowledgments, grateful acknowledgment is due many teachers, parents, and other friends who have made helpful suggestions for a list of songs which every child should know. In addition to these essential old favorites, carefully selected new songs about children's activities and interests are included through the cooperation of poets, composers, and publishers. And then it says, thank you, Mr. Henry Ford, for the privilege of using source materials in illustrating Mary Had a Little Lamb. Okay, okay, okay. The table of contents here. Oh, look, one of the songs, Three Little Kittens. Let's go to page six because I want to break down the lyrics for Three Little Kittens. Miss Rachel, if you're watching, here we go. Three little kittens, they lost their mittens and they began to cry. Oh, mother dear, we sadly fear our mittens we have lost. What lost your mittens, you naughty kittens? Then you shall have no pie. Consequence, consequence. Okay. Verse two in here. Three little kittens, they found their mittens and they began to cry. Oh, mother dear. See here, see here. Our mittens we have found. What found your mittens, you little kittens? Then you shall have some pie. Teaching irresponsibility versus responsibility. Then in the third verse, here we go. We used to teach this to kids. Third verse. Three little kittens they put on their mittens and soon ate up the pie. Oh, mother dear, we greatly fear our mittens we have soiled. What soiled your mittens, you naughty kittens? Then they began to sigh. And then the fourth verse, are you still with me? Drop your comments if this is not what you expected from Parental Alert, but we're going here. Three little mittens, fourth verse. They washed their mittens and hung them up to dry. Oh, mother dear, look here, look here, our mittens we have washed what washed your mittens you darling kittens so we have irresponsible behavior them correcting their irresponsible behavior by being responsible and finding their mittens and then being rewarded then they have a little bit of oopsie mess up we got everything dirty but look mom we cleaned it up and then they were rewarded for being cleaned up so what is wrong with standards like these, Miss Rachel, in teaching kids to be responsible, to clean up after themselves. This is what these nursery rhymes used to do. Okay, moving on. Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater. Look at the lyrics. They're just silly. They're ridiculous. And I know that Miss Rachel doesn't like them, but I am going to take a little bit of a left turn on this one and remind everyone that if Miss Rachel has a problem with Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater putting his wife in a pumpkin shell to keep her, why does she not have a problem with Islamists who do not believe in women's rights? Just a question I'm asking. Jimmy Crackcorn and Oh Susanna, she does not like those nursery rhymes because she says that they're racist because they were created and performed during a time when folks used to perform in blackface. I don't condone that. Most reasonable people share my feelings in saying, yeah, that's really not okay. But here's another thing I'm going to present to you. Oh Susanna does not have any explicitly racist lyrics. Oh Susanna was written by a guy by the name of Stephen Foster when he was about 20, 21 years old. The song was first performed in 1847 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was officially published in 1848 and sold over 100,000 pieces of sheet music, which was unprecedented at that time. The song went on to become an anthem then for gold rushers traveling to California. And all I got to say is these types of songs that have history about how America expanded and something that was so, you know, positively pervasive at the time to sell 100,000 pieces of sheet music. I mean, that's a piece of American history. And you know what? Thank goodness there are still shows, children's music shows, who believe in passing down some of these old songs for children to learn so that they can feel connected to America's history through music. Let's just roll a clip. I found one. Let's roll a clip. I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee. I'm going to Louisiana, my true love for to see. It rained all night the day I left, the weather, it was dry. The sun's so hot, I'm afraid to dance, Susanna, don't you cry. Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me. Cause I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee. That is one of my favorite folk songs. What's a folk song? Oh, a folk song is a very old song that people have been singing and sharing for a very long time. Folk songs are about traveling, they're about love, and they're also about friendship. Yes, okay. Sun's so hot I froze to death, the lyrics are silly, they're silly, they're silly, they're silly. That, of course, is our very own PragerU Kids, America's favorite music show for preschoolers. We are not canceling nursery rhymes. We are not canceling folk tales. Kids should learn the songs with silly, ridiculous lyrics that all Americans grew up with and feel connected with in one way or another for the past hundred years, maybe even more, because these are the songs that bind us to one another through generations, establishing a cohesive cultural literacy from one generation to the next. That is how you build a nation. That is how you build a constituency of people who, when they grow up, they might not agree on everything and they might not agree on how politics and how the country should be run, but we are all connected on a foundational level to be able to say, you know what? I don't agree with what you have to say, but I'm going to defend your ability to say it. And even though you don't agree with me and even though you don't understand me, we can meet somewhere in the middle because there is a visceral understanding from when we were all young that we are Americans together. And that happens through music. Sorry, not sorry. It happens through music. You can watch all six episodes with your preschoolers or first graders or second graders. I'm told actually that second graders and third graders are actually liking this series, too, a lot. But you can watch all six episodes of America's Favorite Music Show for free on PragerUKids.com. Oh, and there's a, I almost forgot, there's a companion book, too, with, oh, here you go, Oh Susanna. There are short, educational, age-appropriate for preschool and kindergarten explanations of what the song is, you know, talking about how Oh Susanna was very popular during the gold rush. And then there is also sheet music. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Stay with me. Stay with me. Stay with me. Stay with me. Oh, it's at the end. You also have the sheet music for singalongs at home or in your classroom. So America's favorite music show and companion book. There we go. Okay. And you know what? One last thing about, uh, one last thing about that clip about Miss Rachel. I know I'm going to, I'm going to move on from this. But one last thing about that clip about Miss Rachel and the nursery rhymes, it did actually, not to overthink it and to belabor this, but it really does raise an important question. And whenever I see things like that, it raises questions in my mind about asking sincerely, aren't we all exhausted yet from imposing complex, overthinking, over analyzing you know topics into our youngest learners lives nursery rhymes are catchy tunes they're silly lyrics they're not to be taken seriously and imposing all of these adult talking points like when rachel's talking about offering the kittens strategies and the kids don't don't understand that we cannot impose all of these adult talking points and and adult psychology and psychiatry onto youngest children. It's poisoning them. It's ruining their childhood. We as the adults have the responsibility to think about things in a certain way. But when you're singing songs with kids, don't impose all of that stuff. My personal opinion as a mom who currently has two teenagers. Okay. But I do fear that our culture's obsession with forcing kids to think about and always having to overanalyze and discuss age-inappropriate topics is unfortunately now irreversible because you've got, I mean, if you just, you know, look at our culture, you've got the modern day Mr. Rogers, many call Miss Rachel that, overanalyzing and canceling nursery rhymes. You've got teachers unions forcing political curriculum and activism into schools by way of, you know, instructional materials or student walkouts to celebrate anti-American issues. And I also saw this on Instagram this week. Bring it up. There we go. LA Parent Magazine, how to talk to kids about ICE. What are we doing? The irony of all of this is that I used to, I used to do work with LA Parent Magazine about a decade ago. I think they actually wrote a few future articles about me when I was deep into the parenting space. Anyways, okay, for ages three to six, let's go through it with you. Drop me a comment if you have any, you know, opinions about talking to a three to six year old about ICE. So LA Parent Magazine, but we've seen, okay, so again, it's not only the children's entertainers, it's not only the teachers unions forcing the ideology and curriculum into classes, the anti-Americanism into classes and activism at schools. But you've also got now a groupthink mentality of all of these family and parenting resources that quite frankly used to be wholeheartedly trusted to just give you support as a parent. I used to look to LA Parent Magazine as a fun publication to give me support about, you know, about the issues that were close to my heart about how, you know, raising a confident child or making sure that your disciplines and consequences for young children were age appropriate and just giving insight about healthy youth development in a non-politically biased way. But now, of course, politics isn't everything. Aren't we exhausted? LA Parent Magazine recommends for ages three to six, you bring up with your kids regarding ICE about how some families are being treated unfairly because of where they are born. For ages seven to 11, they're recommending that you tell your seven to 11-year-olds that some families are being separated because of how they came to the U.S. and that isn't right. For ages 12 to 18, they're recommending that it's not right for people to be treated differently because of where they're from. And then it also encourages encourage them to take action meaning encourage your 12 to 18 year old to take action my obvious question is teens can't vote until they're 18 so i don't know here's the thing the caption on the post says to talk with kids so that they don't feel anxious but i on the flip side, I think it's actually very, very sad how many adults and many schools are actually encouraging children to be anxious by way of these messages. And why are these kinds of action items always, always, always, most always discrediting authority and the law? Where is the bullet point that says discuss, you know, instructing parents? Where is the bullet point that instructs parents to discuss the following facts, laws, and dilemmas for how we got to this point, historically, socially, morally? Is it okay for adults to impose adult issues onto kids who aren't equipped to understand and aren't fully informed on a broad spectrum of levels to be able to understand and handle the hard facts of a situation, a political situation like ICE. Side note, I personally don't think that little kids should be burdened and saddled with adult issues like this. I think when you're a teen, it's our responsibility, you know, when teens get to high school, middle school and high school, I think it is our responsibility as parents and educators to discuss these type of issues. But you have to present both sides as As much as you might not want to present both sides, you do really have to present both sides and you have to present it in a way that is factual in accordance with the current laws that communicate and educate students how we got to this point. That is what raises and educates critical thinkers. And a side note, we have materials that will help you do that as a parent, our Around the World series. We pulled a whole bunch of books to show you. Around the World series is for middle school and up, tackles global issues, social issues from around the world. This one, freedom of speech. This one is about immigration, energy crisis, South Africa, India, Priya overcomes adversity. We have to talk to our children about immigration, freedom of speech, religious liberty, energy, socialism, all of these issues that are coming to fruition in our classrooms and in our communities. But we can't have the groupthink mentality of abandoning the facts when we're talking to kids about this. And I don't know. Let me know. Is it appropriate to talk to a three-year-old about ice? Can a three-year-old understand? Where are the pediatricians out there? Developmentally, can a three-year-old understand? Now for some good news. I wasn't going to leave you hanging. Shifting gears, we have some good news in education from a state that we don't often see in the headlines. New Hampshire. You're not going to believe what the New Hampshire Education Department is doing concerning homeschool students. Here's a hint. I have a quote for you. Let's bring it up, and I just wanna read it out loud to get ourselves in the state of mind. Here we go. A quote from a woman by the name of Kate Baker, excuse me, Kate Baker Demers. She's an executive director of Children's Scholarship Fund in New Hampshire. And in a recent op-ed in the New Hampshire Journal, she posed the question, imagine paying dues to a local recreation center for years. Your money maintains the basketball courts, the fields, and the afterschool programs. Then one day, poof, your child tries to sign up for the youth league and gets turned away because your family does not use the facility full time. Most people would call that unfair. Would you call it unfair? Again, that was for an op-ed back in June in the New Hampshire Journal, nhjournal.com, if you want to read her full op-ed. So the good news is that the New Hampshire State of Education Department agrees with her. Yes, it is unfair to pay taxes towards facilities and resources and not be able to use them because you don't happen to use all of the facilities and resources on a full-time basis. So the State Education Department of New Hampshire, drumroll please, will now allow homeschooled students to participate in public school offerings. We're talking, bring up the graphic, good news. We're talking curricular courses, so classes, school clubs, sports teams, performing groups, career technical education, standardized tests, middle and high school, statewide assessments and also preliminary scholastic aptitude test, which is the PSAT. Boom! New Hampshire. Good job, New Hampshire. We appreciate that. New Hampshire is, although this is a fairly recent announcement, New Hampshire is not the only state to allow homeschoolers to participate in public school activities. 20 states, according to my own individual research, which you can do too on the computer 20 states currently allow homeschooled students to participate in public school offerings and the ones I found were Alabama, Arizona, Alaska, Arkansas Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming those states applause allow homeschooled students access to interscholastic sports and public school activities, although, of course, rules and fees and eligibility requirements do vary state to state and by every local district. So this, my fellow parents and educators, this is a supreme example of what educational freedom means. This is a wonderful example movement towards more educational freedom for families, for schools. And we have seen an uptick in the acceptance of what I like to call inclusive educational freedom. You know, I love using the buzzword inclusive as many times as I can to defend what we are all, you know, to defend our point of view and what we are all trying to do here. the last few years, PragerU Kids, we've been approved for supplemental non-mandatory use in classrooms across 12 states. Again, a supreme example of what educational freedom means. And let's go ahead and just bring up one of the graphics we have. There we go. So we, PragerU kids, again, up to this point in time, October 2026, we have been approved for, again, non-mandatory supplemental use in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, and more to come. Each state has specifics and um, you know, designated areas of, of, of what they have approved from, uh, to be, to use in, in their classroom, um, with live classroom instruction with their teachers or, you know, digital classroom instruction. Each state has its own guidelines for what they are, um, what they've approved to use from PragerU Kids. Most, a lot of it is civics. A lot of it is financial literacy. Idaho, I believe we were working with Idaho specifically for Holocaust education. So again, it varies state by state. But I did think it was interesting because you look at states that we've been approved in, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, New Hampshire. Many of the states that we have been approved in also, by coincidence or by design, happen to be the states who are allowing homeschoolers to participate in public school activities. Arizona, Alaska, New Hampshire, Florida, the states that are embracing the partnership with parents and the rights of parents that is protected by our constitution to raise and educate our own children in ways that we see fit, they are including parental rights for how children are able to be educated in that state. And, you know, for New Hampshire specifically, shout out to New Hampshire. We love you guys. We were approved by the Board of Education about a year ago for five years for our materials to be included in New Hampshire curriculum. And I believe that we do. It was a focus on the financial literacy series and workbooks and lesson plans that we have, cash course. Our new edition, our newest edition, and this is a big one that we're excited about, which also I believe happens to be, yep, also happens to be one of the states that allows homeschoolers to participate in public school activities. We were recently approved in Wyoming, our partnership. You can read about our partnership on our website, PragerUKids.com. Wyoming was actually interested in our civics education offerings. And so what they did was they uploaded our PragerU content, which they approved, went through all the channels of approval, they approved it. They uploaded our civics education content onto the Wyoming State Education Department's learning management system and made it available to all of their teachers across the state to use if that teacher saw helpful, useful, and fit. So we're very grateful for the states embracing educational freedom you can see details for all of our state partnerships how they differ on pragerukids.com if you go to our website and then you scroll across the menu items you can select i believe it's prager you kids in schools on the menu the drop down menu again we are currently approved in 12 states more to come if you would like to start a movement to Get PragerU Kids included as a supplemental resource for your state or community school district to use, check out our website. Check out our website. We'll give you some guidance on there. And don't forget, most of the materials that are being used and requested by teachers across these states are our civics materials and financial literacy materials, because those are very, very real requirements that are, in fact, financial literacy is now becoming a mandated requirement here in California. But they are, you know, these new mandates, these new requirements that many states are putting forth, a lot of times they don't even create the curriculum for teachers. And we have the curriculum. We're creating it. It's free. Doesn't cost anything. Full transparency. Go look at it. Read it. Do all the lesson plans. it's all there for free for everyone to see to vet um and to use should they see fit okay let's go to the comments let's go to the comments let's go to the comments what do we got today what do we got today all right and here listen i know that sometimes i can get very heated and very fired up and very critical here on Parent Alert but i never tried to disparage anyone on a personal level. The first comment here via YouTube, hello YouTube, um Miss Rachel is terrible. Your freedom to drop that comment. Another comment from Instagram regarding what we discussed at the top of the show, Miss Rachel wanting to cancel the nursery rhymes. Another comment from Instagram, how can I get my friends to stop letting their kids watch Miss Rachel? They say their kids won't watch anything else. Uh, my condolences, but there's some lady named Jill, Miss Jill, who reads really fun stories and sings lots of songs and gets pretty good reviews from all the kiddos that watch her. I say that very with, with, with the biggest grateful heart and more, more gratitude than you ever know. Um, she's on PragerUKids.com. So maybe you can suggest to your kids that, you know, there's a alternative. Should I start wearing a headband? Next comment. Miss Rachel, this is one, there's another comment from Instagram. Miss Rachel had a jihadist on her show, a Hamas sympathizer. It is very disappointing. It is very disappointing. It's poisonous, but it's up to us parents. This is where I, you know, I have, I've often said here, and, and I, I am the first person to support parents in saying that raising kids is very, very exceptionally difficult in this age because there is so much coming at us and we have to be the guardrails for far too many things oftentimes that we really don't see coming or that are happening without our knowledge or consent. But parents, it's up to us parents to know what our kids are watching. It's up to us parents to say, no, you're not watching that. It's up to us parents to monitor what we give our children to watch, what our children are reading. We have to do the legwork. We have to be the boots on the ground guards. We have to. There's no other choice. There's no other choice. We have to protect our kids. Next comments from Instagram. Children need to enjoy their childhood and not be stressed out by our adult issues. I fully agree. Another comment from YouTube. Jill is greater than Miss Rachel. Oh, thank you. Who wrote that? Do I know you? No, I did not pay that person to write that. Thank you so much. Okay. Another comment from YouTube. The only reason they are going after Miss Rachel is because PragerU is funded by Israeli lobby and Miss Rachel is attempting to bring empathy to children affected by Israel's bombing of children. Listen, I understand the empathy part. I understand the tragedy through war part. I understand all of the caring for children and I understand having empathy for tragedy. It is tragic. This world is a very tragic place. But when you cross the line of saying that you love children and you love people and you start putting politics in an age inappropriate way into children's shows. That's when I say, no, no, no, no, no. It's not okay. It's not all right. All right. Those are the comments for today. We are out of time. Thank you always for being here with Parent Alert today and every day. Subscribe for free to PragerUKids.com for new episodes, lesson plans, new shows, all in your inbox. We also offer, of course, a lot of parent resources, a lot of teacher resources for you to use as you see fit for teaching knowledge, fostering cultural literacy through music too, and appreciating America. As always, our offerings include U.S. history, patriotism, good character, civics, financial literacy. We want to thank you always for your support of PragerU Kids. We cannot do any of this without you. We are a non-profit. Every single thing we do is dependent on donations. You can make a donation for five bucks. You can make a donation for 500 bucks, $5,000. The sky is the limit, but no donation is too small either. And we appreciate every single one of them. Thank you. Links to our PragerU releases that I shared with you here on this episode are in the description of wherever you're watching from. God bless and God speed. Thank you for watching Parent Alert. See you next time.