I have some bad news — a core part of your childhood is about to be destroyed and it's unfortunately for the better.
We all know our ABCs right? If you've forgotten, here are the lyrics:
A B C D E F G H I J K ELLAMENOPEE Q R S T U V W X Y Z.
Pretty simple stuff. We all grew up with the sing-song way of learning the alphabet.
Watch: Thank you to teachers everywhere. Post continues below.
I remember in Kindergarten we would all stand up and our teacher would play a game (well, it was a game to her, it was life or death for five-year-old me) where we had to say the alphabet perfectly with each student saying one letter at a time. If you got your letter wrong, you had to sit down.
It started fairly well, the kids who got to say A B C D would always nail it. The E F G H I J K's barely scraped through... and then you saw it... the absolute fear in the eyes of the L M N O P kids. They knew they wouldn't survive... and they didn't. RIP.
We all started dropping like flies, never making it to the safe lands of the Q R S let alone the T U V W X Y Z.
Luckily for the younger generation (who always get the good things), the alphabet song has changed and they will never get stuck saying our collective favourite letter — ELLAMENOPEE.
TikToker and first grade teacher Rachel Sorsel posted a video, which now has six million views, saying that she doesn't teach the alphabet the way she (and we) grew up singing it.
And this is BREAKING NEWS, PEOPLE.
In her video she shares that the tune is the same, but the new rendition teachers now prefers breaks down as follows:
ABCDEFG / HIJKLMN / OPQ / RST / UVW/ XYZ (you can watch her sing it below if you're now extremely confused).
@teacherrachelsorsel It's true: they changed the alphabet song. But it's for a good reason! #scienceofreading #earlyliteracy #teachyourkidtoread #structuredliteracy #developmentallyappropriate #sor #phonics #alphabetsong #theychangedthealphabet #teachertip #preschool #kindergarten #firstgrade ♬ original sound - Mindful Teacher - SoR & SEL
Rachel says that our collective favourite letter "ellamenopee" is the main reason for the change, as kids don't hear the individual letters and I mean come on... can't they just learn how to say L M N O P when they're 13 years old like the rest of us?
But "X, Y and Z" is also another reason for the change, because some kids think the letter Y is pronounced
"Whyand".
Honestly, this new way of saying the alphabet makes perfect sense, but just between us I'm a bit annoyed teachers are now catering to their students learning needs and not traumatising them for nostalgic and traditional purposes — how dare they.
I can't wait until this new wave of kids grow up so I can say, "You don't know the struggle of dealing ELLAMENOPEE and it shows."
If you want more culture opinions by Emily Vernem, you can follow her on Instagram @emilyvernem.
Feature image: TikTok/@teacherrachelsorsel.