My oldest is in pre-k and I’ve seen that it’s now “cris cross apple sauce”. “Back in my day” (early 90s) it was “Indian style” when the teacher wanted you to sit.
This isn’t a “damn woke snowflake libs ruining everything” question. It doesn’t bother me, I’m just curious.
Comments
Late 2000s
In the early 90s was when I was in elementary and we called it criss cross applesauce
I went to school in the early 2000s and we got a mix of both. just depended on the teacher.
My oldest is 27 and they learned cris cross apple sauce. Where have you been all these years?
It was cris cross at least as early as 2010ish when my daughter was in Pre-K.
Not sure why exactly it was changed. I imagine that the ongoing societal reckoning with ingrained casual racism probably played a part in choosing to change the name over time (so actual “woke”, not the conservative boogeyman where “woke” is everything they don’t like or understand).
My niece was in school in early 2k and it was Indian style here in NY
They said to sit indian style in kindergarten in 1990. When I worked in a kindergarten class in 2005 they said Criss Cross Applesauce. Both were in California.
I’m 23 and I’ve always heard it called cris cross applesauce so at least since the early 2000s
Either way, I’m in my fourties’ and still sit that way. I hate having my legs down.
Sitting that way now, and in the 1980s where I grew up, it was called “Indian style”. When I taught pre-k in 2004, I think it was criss-cross.
I am from BC Canada, I have never heard sitting cross legged as “Indian style” and I have only ever heard ” cris cross applesauce” on TV. So I dunno?
What does it have to do with applesauce?
Lots of words could rhyme, any reason to pick applesauce? Why not dental floss? Spongy moss? I’m at a loss?
I called it cross legged. I don’t know why either of the other options exist.
In my pre-k in the mid-90s, it was “criss-cross applesauce.”
But that was from the singsongy chant that made us remember the expectations:
🎵”Criss-cross applesauce, pockets on the floor. Hands in your lap, and talk no more!”
Then it became just, “Alright, everybody sit criss cross applesauce!” And we all knew we were supposed to sit cross-legged in one spot, not be wiggling around, be quiet, and keep our hands still. We were a room of tiny humans who didn’t yet have the developmental capacity to get it right all the time or for super long, but we did know the expectation.
I never heard “Indian style” used in a class setting aside from a storybook mentioning a character sitting “Indian style” and the teacher explaining that it just meant criss cross applesauce. I have no idea if the chant was made up or if it came from somewhere.
I thought it was ‘a person from India’ sitting like a yoga pose.
I started pre-k in the late 2000s, and throughout elementary school, it was always “cris cross applesauce.”
I wonder if it’s a regional thing. I never heard either of these, I only ever heard “cross-legged,” pronounced with three syllables, as in “leg-ged.” Grew up in Alabama.
It was “Indian style” when I was a kid in the 90s. I don’t remember either in middle school, and by the time I hit high school, 2004, no one was telling us how to sit anymore and I always said “cross-legged.”
I’ve never heard “criss cross applesauce” outside of saying it to little kids
We called it Indian style when I was in school in the 90’s in ny but more interestingly my god daughter still calls it Indian style now.
80s and only called it cross legged and it was required to ‘sit on your bum’ ie. Not kneeling as that blocked the view for other kids.
How about, ‘sit cross-legged’? And *they* are called First Nations now.
I never heard either, went to kindergarten in early 80s.
I read Indian style in some books and have recently encountered the applesauce one.
We said cross-legged.
Was “Indian Style” in the early 1980’s when elementary school teachers still referred to it. Was criss cross applesauce in 2010’s when gymnastics coach asked my daughter’s class to do it.
I’m a 38 year old in Canada with kids and I’ve never heard it called “Indian style.” This post was a first.
No joke I didn’t hear either term until I was in my 20s and I thought they were both wild lol. I only ever heard “cross-legged” growing up
When I was a kid in the 80’s it was Indian style or “pretzel.”
Side note: when you sat with your feet touching, that was also Indian style. To me that made more “sense,” in the terrible stereotype way.
Anyway, in the early 2000’s it seemed to be morphing into “criss cross applesauce.” It never made sense to me why pretzel didn’t catch on. Anyone with insight on that?
What the fuck are you talking about
It was Indian style when I was in kindergarten in 1996, and it had changed by 2002 when I left elementary school.
I started elementary school in 2001 and we had a mix of both. Southeast US if that matters
My schools all said cross legged.
I’m surprised you haven’t heard criss cross.
Even outside of being a kid I’ve heard it around, granted not often.
I was taught both in Fl, 1994 or so
whatever happened to “tailor style?”
Damn it all, I’m just old
It was “criss cross applesauce” when I was in kindergarten in 1998.
Criss Cross Applesauce when I was a child in the early 2000’s. Nobody said “Indian style”
I think it changed when people realized using ethnicities as adjectives wasn’t a very good practice
We called it ‘kindergarten style’ in playschool and kindergarten, and then started calling it ‘cross-legged’ around grade one. That would’ve been in Canada in the late 90s/early 00s
Old man here. As a Gen Xer we always referenced as Indian style. Rarely you would hear some say cross legged. Hate to be that old man but I was confused by criss-cross applesauce the first dozen times I heard it. Then I heard sitting crossed legged. Cleared up the confusion.
I know as a kid(also early 90s, although for me I’m a young child at this time) I heard both.
Only problem is, as a kid I lived in the South and the Midwest, and I’m not sure if one was more prevalent in one area.
But I know I heard both in the 90s/very early 00s
My Godkids are now in their late 20s and early 30s and it was always cris-cross-applesauce when they were little.
My youngest godchild was born in 1992
Edited to add: we were in Austin, TX
I say criss cross, because when I want them to sit they usually want to jump, jump.
My kindergarten teacher came back from a seminar in 1999 and taught us “criss cross applesauce spoons in the bowl” (hands in laps pretty much). I remember that like it was yesterday
She was also convinced that the world was ending on Y2K and she’d never see us again loool
She only lasted a year poor lady
I’ve only ever called it cross-legged. Born in ’81.
Mid 90s in Canada only ever heard ‘cross-legged’. Neither of the others. Never even heard criss-cross-applesauce until I was in my late twenties. I figured it was an American thing that spread later with the Internet.
American here, have always heard cross-legged since the 50s, honestly.
I’m an 80s “Indian style” kid, with children born between the 2007s and 2011s. It seems like this “criss cross applesauce” fad jumped off in about 2010.
My preschool in the mid 90s was always cross cross apple sauce. We also have a lot of Native Land near me, so we could have been ahead of the curve on eschewing that racist trope.
I’d say it happened in about 1994.
Welcome to the modern era
Well…back in the early to mid 90s a residential school was still open in BC, Canada…oh the things we used to say when we oppressed an entire group of people 😅 I’d say the prejudice behind the saying is probably why it was phased out.
Oddly I have never heard sitting cross legged being referred to in that way. Born in spring of ‘89, you’d think I would have heard that at some point. Criss cross applesauce, yes, but never sitting Indian style.
I was born in the early 2000s and I’ve literally never heard of “Indian Style” except for when older people were asking about it. I’d say at least 20 years.