Tag Archives: elementary school

Game

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Alameda, CA
Performance Date: March 3, 2008
Primary Language: English

“Circle, circle, dot, dot, now I have the cootie shot.”

I was sick and I touched Nick’s arm. I apologized for touching him while ill, and he pretended to be alarmed. He then playfully recited the above live. He said this above line as a way of jokingly warding off disease.

He learned this game from elementary school. In elementary school, girls think boys have cooties, and boys think girls have cooties. Cooties can be loosely defined as germs. The only thing one really needs to know about them is that one does not want to have them; they are gross and bad. The only way to ward off contracting the cooties was to trace a circle twice around a spot on one’s arm and then poke the center of the circle twice while chanting this line. The cootie shot also works to protect one from anything gross. Nick used it just like everyone else did in his elementary school. However, Nick still continues to use it in a playful manner. Whenever he encounters or touches something gross, such as a person coughing, he uses it. He calls these “occasions for the cootie shot.” He does not mean to offend the other person (me), he is just kidding. He realizes it is a “child teasing game.”

I myself also went through the cootie shot phase in elementary school. I think the cootie shot is pretty popular in most elementary schools, as evidenced by the cootie shot appearing in published works such as Shelley Stoehr’s book Weird on the Outside (p. 83). Playing tag became problematic when the cootie shot was introduced, because then everyone was busy inoculating themselves with the cootie shot after getting tagged. I agree with Nick that one mainly used it in elementary school as a way to get rid of any cooties one may have contracted from touching a person of the opposite sex, or something gross (or both). I agree that the cootie shot is a definite form of protection. In elementary school, it was thought to be a foolproof way to guard against cooties. However, I think there is another reason behind children wanting to guard against the cooties they could contract from interacting with a person of the opposite sex. Games are oftentimes a child’s way of exploring the world around them. They see that in the adult world, males and females interact and so children become curious about the opposite sex. However, in elementary school, boys and girls are usually polarized in their respective genders; girls stick with girls, boys stick with boys. According to elementary school social rules, boys and girls are not “supposed to” interact. I think the cootie shot is a “safe”, acceptable way for children to interact with one another. The cootie shot meant they could safeguard themselves from any danger that could possibly result from interacting with a person of the opposite sex. It also gave them an excuse to interact with the opposite sex. It was a playful game, and it is still used once in awhile even though we are now older. Nick is evidence that young adults still engage in this playful game.

It is interesting that the cootie shot game has stayed with young adults. Young adults do not typically still recite jump-rope rhymes, but I have heard multiple young adults still use the cootie shot. It was a playful game in elementary school, and it remains a playful game in college. However, it has changed for college students because now it is an occasion for anyone involved in this occurrence to laugh and become a little bit nostalgic. Most of us are nostalgic when it comes to remembering the grade school days, and the cootie shot brings back a lot of memories. People then tend to discuss these memories, seeing what similar things they did or had at their separate elementary schools.

Annotation: Stoehr, Shelley. Weird on the Outside. New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, 1995.

Selection Rhyme

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tiburon, CA
Performance Date: March 21, 2008
Primary Language: English

Counting out Rhyme:

Inky Binky Bon-key

1        2       3      4

Daddy had a don-key

1       2        3     4

Donkey died, Daddy cried

1         2       3         4

Inky Binky Bon-key

1      2       3      4

This rhyme is used as a method of selecting someone to be “It” in a game of tag, or to select someone to do a certain task (either desirable or undesirable).  Everyone stands in a circle and either puts their fist or foot in the circle.  Someone, often the “leader” of the group is responsible for saying the rhyme and with each word goes around the circle in a clockwise direction lightly tapping the fists or feet of the participants with their own fist (Bon-key and don-key both count as two words—meaning two taps, and the “a” before the word “donkey”  is ignored—no tap). Whoever is the person to get tapped on the last syllable of the rhyme (the –key part of the second Bon-key) is “It” or the selected person to do the task.  There are different variations of the same rhyme.  In one variation you continue to say the rhyme eliminating each person who is tapped on the last syllable until only one person is left, and this person is the one which must do the task.  There also is a variation where everyone puts both their fists or feet into the circle, elongating the time it takes to select the one person, thus creating more suspense.

Katy learned this on the playground during elementary school, and is not sure of the exact moment and location or who told her about it, but did use it often.  She is not sure of where the counting rhyme came from, or what the significance of its lines is.

It is rather remarkable that kids devise such easy ways to make decisions, as adults often find themselves caught in a power struggle over a particular issue.  While it is hard to interpret this nonsensical riddle, it could portray the message of getting over things quickly and moving on, as implied by “donkey died, daddy cried.” This could be targeted towards the “loser” who has to be it or do the task, implying that one should deal with it and move on.  There is another related counting rhyme which I found after some research on the internet:

Inka binka bottle of ink

The cork fell off and you stink

Not because you’re dirty

Not because you’re clean,

Just because you kissed a boy (or girl) behind a magazine.

Whether the “inka binka” and “inky binky bonkey” are related or derive from the same origins is hard to gather, however the rest of the rhymes don’t really relate, and it could just be a coincidence.  I was not able to find any rhymes that were in between the two, as both seem to have very little variation.