"Flowers are Red" by Harry Chapin
The little boy went to the first day of school.
He got some crayons and started to draw.
He put colors all over the paper,
for colors was what he saw.
And the teacher said, " What you doin', young man?"
"I'm painting flowers," he said.
She said, "It's not the time for art, young man.
And anyway flowers are green and red."
"There's a time for ev'rything, young man,
A way it should be done.
You've got to show concern for ev'ryone else
for your not the only one." And she said,
"Flowers are red, young man, and green leaves are green.
There's no need to see flowers any other way
than the way they've always been seen."
But the little boy said, "There are so many colors in the rainbow,
so many colors in the morning sun,
so many colors in a flower and I see ev'ry one."
The teacher said, You're sassy.
There's ways that things should be.
And you'll paint flowers the way they are.
The teacher put him in a corner.
She said, "It's for your own good.
And you won't come out till you get it right,
and responding like you should"
Well finally he got lonely,
frightened thoughts filled his head.
And he went up to the teacher
and this is what he said,
"Flowers are red and green leaves are green.
There no need to see flowers any other way
than the way they've always been seen."
Time went by like it always does,
And they moved to another town.
And the little boy went to another school,
and this is what he found:
The teacher there was smiling.
She said, "Painting should be fun.
And there are so many colors in a flower,
so let's use every one."
But the little boy painted flowers
in neat rows of green and red.
But there still must be a way to have our children sing,
There are so many color in the rainbow,
so many colors in the morning sun,
so many colors in a flower, and I see ev'ry one."
In reading this again, I realize how sad it is. I think too much creativity is squashed in the name of conformity. I read book, "Shipping News," in which one of the characters remarked that all kids have a bit of weirdness in them until they learn to hide it and be like everyone else. The truly amazing people are the ones who never loose that bit of unabashed uniqueness.
Nice song and topic... It's true it's sad for the little boy but at the same time, lucky he got to have another teacher at a young age. Despite the abominable lecture by the 1st teacher, there's still hope one day he will question what he was taught. He can be a late bloomer, no?
ReplyDeleteThat's true that he might "un-learn" the rhetoric of the first teacher. And now there's hope because he has a new teacher. I never thought of it that way. I just find it sad that he would repeat the bad teacher's words to begin with. One thing that I love about kids though is that they're so flexible in the way they think. Though they're impressionable too, which is why we have to be careful not to pass on our preconceived notions and mar the beautiful way they look at the world, with such openness.
ReplyDeletethe poet probably read 1984 - this poem and that book have a similar theme for sure
ReplyDelete