Lyrics of
Teach Your Children

Teach Your Children, written by Graham Nash, was inspired by the Diane Arbus photograph titled Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park. Nash wrote the song while contemplating the relationship between parents and children and the importance of teaching and learning across generations. The song became an anthem for mutual understanding and communication between generations during the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s.

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good-bye.
Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked's the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
and know they love you.
And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked's the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
and know they love you.
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