and maybe forever we can only speculate the truth. We must not overlook the importance of these rhymes, nonsense, ditties and songs. These rhymes are a piece of all the threads of time and talk that adults spin around growing children in their homes, in the street, or at school. These rhymes play a crucial part in the development, not only language, but also clapping, the skipping, counting out rhymes, and all other sources of inventive word play. Language in its patterning sets the course of young lives; the importance of acquiring expressiveness can not be overstated. Without linguistic agility, we can not be at our true potential....
