What if this simple change to the alphabet song turns out to fix everything that is wrong with our eductional system? No more poor readers! No more poor spellers! The U.S. soars to the top of test scores! The change was brilliant, I tell you, brilliant.
I suggest that next we get rid of the number “9”. This would make math 10% easier.
“Happy happy now are we. We can say our A B Cs.” We don’t care what you think of us.
QRS - TUV
I was all set to take this to the Pit and rail against the edumacators who want to spoonfed today’s tots instead of making them learn to figure out ellemenopee all on their own…
but then…
I realized…
No, it can’t be! Is it really?
Yes it is! Get ready to have your world all shaken up!
We’ve been learning the song wrong! :eek:
They’re teaching it right with the new way!
Yeah, I denied it as well, but look at the 3rd and 4th lines of the original song (ok it’s not the original song since the twinkle star lyrics were added centuries after the original melody was created, but whatever for now):
Up above the world so high,
Like a Diamond in the sky
Now, match each syllable with its corresponding letter and you’ll see the way we were taught doesn’t match up too well, and it treats ‘diamond’ as having only 2 syllables:
Up–a--bove–the–world–so–high
Q—R----S-------------T----U----V
or, as some learned it:
Q—R----S-----T------U—and—V
Like–a--“die”–mond–in–the–sky
dub–ya—X -------------Y–and–Z
But the new crazy way the kids are now learning it, well it now matches like a charm, plus the 3 syllables in the letter W match exactly with the 3 in ‘diamond’:
Up–a--bove–the–world–so–high
N—O----P-----Q------R-----S----T
Like–a--die–ah–mond–in–the–sky
U-----V–dub–ble–yu-----X----Y----Z
So there you go! We were all gyped into learning it wrong!! Who’d a thunk it?
And it’s ‘play with me’ gosh dernit. Shouldn’t I get rewarded with play for learning my ABCs?
Unless you’re Porky Pig, in which case it’s “I can sing in any key, ABCDEFG.”
That’s how I learned it, too. Perhaps that explains why I ended up attaching so much importance to approval from authority figures. 
My younger brother, incidentally, used to sing the part of the song in question as “elementopee,” which annoyed our parents quite a bit…
In college, so very long ago, I had a friend who could sing the song with the alphabet in an entirely different order.
A major mind bender, I assure you. Same tune, but just an absolute random sounding order. We did make him do it over and over, and checked to make sure he did all the letters, which he did. He did rhymes with u and w, along with the ee sound rhymes. He claimed not to have originated it, but rather had learned it in summer camp, as a kid.
Tris
And for the last verse:
Z Y X W V U T [pause] S R Q P ONMLK [pause]
J I H [pause] G F E [pause] D [pause] C [pause] B [pause] A [pause]
Now I know my Z-Y-X’s. Next time let’s all walk to Texas.
And the last two alphabet sections don’t even rhyme.
Another vote for “tell me what you think of me.” If this site is looking for new material to map, we’ve stumbled upon a suggestion. Then again, the differences may be more age-related than geographically determined.
How do British/Canadian/etc. people end the song? “W and X, Y, Z(ed), now my ABC’s are said?”
Oh, and I seem to recall hearing both the “Q, R, S, T, U, V” version and the one with “and” interspersed between “S” and “T”. Also “W, X, Y, and Z”, but less frequently than “W and X, Y, Z(ee)”. FWIW, I was born in 1959 and grew up in suburban Cleveland, Ohio.
I like the Alphabet Theatre theme from Sesame Street:
ABCDE-CDEFG-HIJK-LMNNNN-OP-QRSTU-RSTUV-STUV-W-X-YZZZZ(aaand aaaaa bbbb cccccccccc)
I hate the new way because I fear change.
But I had a problem because I learned it ellenemopee.
I didn’t realize I had it wrong until we learned to alphabetize and I kept screwing up in that neighborhood.
I’m not such a big fan of smilies but that got a 
from me.
And Sternvogel, the way I learned it was:
“…w, x y and z(ed)
Now I’ve learned my ABCs
Next time won’t you sing with me”
T’wasn’t really a problem.
How is “z(ed)” pronounced?
“…y and z left parenthesis ‘ed’ right parenthesis. Now I’ve learned my ABCs…” ?
Or do you just make parenthesis signs with your hands?
I swear I once heard my daughter sing it this way:
“H - I - J - K - elephant’ll pee”
Laughed so hard I threw out my back.
It is pronounced zed. I was using Sternvogel’s method from a few posts up for emphasizing the Canadian/British way of saying the last letter of the alphabet. Although I also have to say that zee is creeping its way across the 49th parallel.
In Britain, I was singing it like that thirty five years ago - except the final pause came after the U rather than the T.
Glad we still have some influence.
Come to think of it, we had slight pauses after the C and Q as well. Must be a different tune.