Oh dear, oh dear. A poor old school teacher is in trouble again, this time for being too politically correct. No this dastardly man did not ban Santa Claus, he changed the words of a song. But not any old song–it’s a song that is an Australian icon. He changed a word, just the one word mind you, in Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.
Actually it’s quite funny how up in arms people have got over this. Remember this teacher had to teach the students this song. Obviously its icon status has slipped a bit over the years if the children had to be taught the words.
So if you are like the children of a Melbourne primary school and you don’t know the words well I’ll help you out. It goes
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra
Gay your life must be
It’s a classic and I can’t possibly understand why it’s not topping the charts, but you can see the obvious problem. Yes poor primary school principal, Garry Martin changed the one of the words. He changed gay to fun. Find a tree and hang that man.
Well no–let’s give the poor man a break. All of you tut tutting about changing the word have obviously never had to teach a class of primary school children. They seize on words like gay. There’d have been no singing of gay your life must be. Instead there’d be giggles and face pulling and poor Mr Martin would have been tearing his hair out. Trust me I know. You should try discussing the planets–Uranus anyone?
Times have changed and our language has evolved. While gay used to mean happy etc well it might still mean that, but its more common usage has changed.
When I was a kid I spent two weeks every year at the beach–at the Gay Vacationer. They’ve changed that now. It’s the Bay Vacationer.
However I would like to commend Golden Gaytime for sticking by their guns. Golden Gaytime is my favourite ice-cream. My husband however prefers it if I order it myself. He has a problem asking the shopkeeper for a Golden Gaytime.
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