Audit Flags Duck and Noise Reporting
NEWTON, Iowa — A school district’s early learning committee voted 5 to 2 to revise the words to “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” one of the nursery rhymes songs taught to kindergartners each fall, after an audit found that the farm’s record-keeping did not support what the song says goes on there.
Committee chair Dennis Pruitt said the review was not planned. It began when a parent asked a district office worker who Old MacDonald is and where the farm is located. The worker did not know, the office did not know, and by the following meeting the question had a subcommittee.
“We didn’t set out to find anything,” Pruitt said. “We asked where the farm was. The song said ‘had.'”
Why the Old MacDonald Had a Farm Words Were Reviewed
With no one on staff trained in agricultural bookkeeping, the committee borrowed its method from livestock recordkeeping guidance written for beginning farmers and applied it line by line to the song. Members said the exercise took three evenings and one bag of pretzels.
The result was a four-item findings memo, which the committee read into the record before voting.
What the Audit Found in the Old MacDonald Farm Song
Finding 1. The farm is referred to in the past tense. Current ownership and operating status are not documented. Finding 2. The noise of each animal is reported in two locations, identified only as “here” and “there,” and then reported a third time as “everywhere.” Reviewers could not determine whether this describes one animal or several. Finding 3. A duck appears in the fourth verse with no purchase record, no feed record and no explanation. Finding 4. The letters E-I-E-I-O are used in every verse and are never defined. Recommendation: revise.
Pruitt said the duck drew the longest discussion. “Everything else on that farm shows up in order,” he said. “The duck just arrives. Somebody let that duck in.”
The committee also mailed a certified letter to Old MacDonald, care of the farm, asking him to define E-I-E-I-O and account for the duck. The letter came back marked “no such address,” which the committee entered into the record as confirmation of Finding 1. Pruitt said no one on the committee wanted to be the person who sent a second one.
Hearing Transcript Shows Committee Divided on the Old MacDonald Had a Farm Words
The vote followed a discussion that the committee secretary transcribed in full. An excerpt follows.
CHAIR PRUITT: The song says he had a farm.
MEMBER BREKKE: Had.
CHAIR PRUITT: Past tense.
MEMBER BREKKE: So who has it now?
CHAIR PRUITT: The song doesn’t say.
MEMBER BREKKE: And we’ve been teaching this to four-year-olds.
[Pause.]
MEMBER LUND: I’d like it noted that the cow is consistent.
MEMBER BREKKE: The cow is the only one.
Lund and one other member voted against the revision. Lund said afterward that he was not defending the song so much as the cow.
Music Teachers Weigh In on the Macdonald Farm Song
Ruth Ellingson, a retired elementary music teacher who said she has taught the song to roughly forty classes, said the committee was making a mistake. “Children learn the words in about two minutes,” she said. “The adults took three evenings and a hearing. I’m not sure which group should be revising which.”
Ellingson said the song has survived generations without a records review. “A fair number of those generations couldn’t tell you where the pig came from either,” she said. Folk song historians have traced the tune through many versions, and the encyclopedia entry on Old MacDonald Had a Farm runs through a long list of them. Pruitt said none addressed the duck.
What the New Old MacDonald Had a Farm Words Look Like
The revised draft runs nine pages. It opens with the line “Old MacDonald has a farm, current ownership pending verification, E-I-E-I-O (see appendix).” The cow’s noise is now reported once, at a single location, with a map attached. The duck has been added to the feed ledger and given a purchase date, which the committee chose not to read aloud.
Kindergarten teachers said the new version still meets the state’s fine arts standards for music instruction, although several said the footnote has been difficult to sing. A first-year teacher said her class has started singing the footnote anyway, and that it scans better than the appendix.
Pruitt said the committee will move next to other entries on its list of nursery rhymes, beginning with the one about the three bags of wool. “Three bags full,” he said. “Where are the receipts?”
Parents Respond to the Revised Old MacDonald Farm Song
Parents were less divided than the committee. A tally kept at the district front office shows 14 callers in favor of the revision and 9 against. Another 31 called to ask whether the farm was open for visits. The office worker who took most of those calls said she has been telling people to check with the duck.
One father, who drives a delivery route, said his daughter now sings the song with a clipboard. “She walks around the kitchen counting things,” he said. “Yesterday she told me the dog was in violation. I asked of what. She said she’d get back to me.”
Anyone looking for the traditional Old MacDonald had a farm words can still find them in the encyclopedia entry linked above. The district’s printed copy has been returned to the committee for further review and, as of this writing, is on page six of the appendix.
Humorous Observations on the Old MacDonald Farm Song
- E-I-E-I-O. It’s the one part every adult in America knows by heart, and not one of us can tell you what it stands for. Could be a ZIP code. Could be a warning.
- He had a farm. Had. Past tense. The whole country is singing a song about a guy who lost his farm, and everybody’s clapping along.
- A moo here and a moo there and everywhere a moo-moo. That’s not a farm, that’s a group chat.
- The duck shows up in verse four with no paperwork and nobody says a word. That duck knows somebody.
- Four-year-olds learn this thing in two minutes. Grown-ups need a committee, an audit and a hearing. We peaked at four, folks.
Last Updated on November 4, 2026 by Alan Nafzger