Not only are the songs we were required to sing in school degrading, they were loaded with nonsense, fallacies, and disinformation that it took many of us years to get over.

Consider the song "The Hole in the Bottom of the Sea":

First, how can there be a hole in the bottom of the sea? If there's a hole in it, then it's not the bottom of the sea! The bottom of the sea is, by definition, the lowest point on the seabed. Well, if there's a hole at the lowest point, then it's the bottom of the hole that's the lowest point. The bottom of the hole in the bottom of the sea is, in fact, the bottom of the sea. There can be a hole in the seabottom, but the seabottom and the bottom of the sea are not the same thing.

Then there's the matter of the frog on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea. There are so many things wrong with that picture they're hard to enumerate. First, a frog is an amphibian and breathes air as an adult and, we must presume, the frog in question is an adult since he is specifically called a "frog" and not a "tadpole". So, the frog must breath occasionally and, while most frogs can stay underwater for pretty good lengths of time, no frog can hold his breath long enough to dive from the surface of the sea all the way down to the bottom of the sea, perch upon a log, and swim back up to catch another gulp of air. Even if he tried, he'd either die of the bends or be crushed by the enormous pressure of the water. And we won't even mention the fact that frogs live in fresh water and will die if immersed in salt water.

Then we have the matter of the hair on the frog on the log in the bottom of the sea. Frogs don't have hair. Period. I don't care about that old saw about "Fine as frog hair". It's a joke. I could spend an hour deconstructing that one but I've got better ways to spend an hour.

And the flea. Yes, the flea on the hair on the frog on the log in hole in the bottom of the sea. Not only do frogs not have hair, they don't have fleas. And even if they did, the flea would be subject to the very same set of circumstances that make the frog's life on a log in a hole in the bottom of the sea so untenable. Even with its hard exoskeleton a flea cannot survive the horrendous pressures at the bottom of the sea.

And we wonder why our kids do so poorly on standardized tests when we allow them to be exposed to such obviously non-scientific tripe as "The Hole in the Bottom of the Sea".