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Teacher sings pro-mask nursery rhyme to kids in clip, Internet slams 'indoctrination'

The video featured a teacher singing ‘The Farmer in the Dell’ with the lyrics changed to reflect a pro-face-mask point of view

The nursery rhyme ‘The Farmer in the Dell’ is something most people have heard — or at least the tune is very familiar even if the lyrics keep changing from region to region. But a new version of the song being taught by a teacher has many online concerned — especially anti-maskers. 

The increasingly popular right-wing Twitter account Libs of TikTok shared a video with its more than 330,000 followers on Sunday, October 3. The video was captioned, “Preschool teacher films herself singing cringey mask song to masked toodlers.” Incidentally, the anonymous administrator of the Twitter account told the Daily Caller earlier this year that the account started out as a way to “just compile funny videos that mostly featured cult-like devotion to Dr Anthony Fauci and people singing songs that praised the vaccine,” adding that “it has now become a way of fighting the culture war.”

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The video featured a teacher singing ‘The Farmer in the Dell’ with the lyrics changed to reflect a pro-face-mask point of view. It wasn't immediately clear when or where the video was filmed, but it shows a group of apparently pre-school-age children wearing face masks inside a classroom. Some children appeared to sing along with their teacher.

"I wear a mask to school, I wear a mask to school, hi-ho, the derry-o, I wear a mask to school," the teacher is heard singing. "It helps to keep me safe, it helps to keep, hi-ho, the derry-o, it helps to keep me safe. It keeps my friends safe. It keeps my friends safe, hi-ho, the derry-o, it keeps my friends safe."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommends indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Mask use is recommended for people who are not fully vaccinated, including children and staff. But the CDC also adds that children under the age of two should not wear a mask. While children are still far less likely to become dangerously ill than older people, pediatric hospitalizations have spiked in the last few weeks, noted an October 5 Washington Post report.

The report noted, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics and federal data, that since the start of the pandemic, more than 5.7 million children have been infected, and more than 540 Americans up to the age of 18 have died. It also noted that, in August, for the first time in the pandemic, the rate of coronavirus infections among children toppled those for adults aged 18 to 64 and seniors, driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

The video, which had been retweeted more than 1,200 times and quote tweeted more than 1,300 times (at the time of writing this), however, has attracted mostly anti-mask views. “This is child abuse and brainwashing. These people need to be stopped. Unmask those kids and let them be kids,” said one Twitter user. Another person wrote, “This genuinely may be one of the most depressing videos I have ever seen! Talk about imposing your viewpoints on children.”

One tweet suggested, “Those children appear sad, confused, and subdued. I guess that means it's working.” Another said, “The accent makes it even worse, but if this doesn’t infuriate you, your moral compass is fundamentally dysfunctional. We’re at levels of indoctrination now that truly are worthy of North Korea or China.” One person wrote, “Kindergarten hostage crisis unfolding before your eyes… Listen to the kids silence. They know it's wrong.”