By Associated Press, 9/24/02

ELKHART, Ind. — A group of Indiana fifth-graders was baffled by the words to a song they sang every morning in class.

So they rewrote its lyrics to be more understandable to children.

The song just happened to be "The Star-Spangled Banner."

"We changed the words so a younger child could understand," Adriana Burton, a Daly Elementary School teacher, told The Truth of Elkhart for a story Tuesday. "They were reading the lyrics and said, `Gosh, what does this mean?"'

"Rampart" and "parapet" were simplified to "walls." Stripes went from "broad" to "wide." "Perilous" became "dangerous" and "gallantly" became "bravely."

The 25 students in Burton's class used dictionaries and a thesaurus to update the lyrics to the 188-year-old national anthem.

The children presented the new version -- all four verses -- at a student assembly Monday afternoon.

Burton said she knew the assignment had been successful when one of her students spotted a child on the playground wall and said, "Hey, Mrs. Burton, he's on the rampart!"

Burton said the students intend to update the words to the Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence later this year.