Flowers are Red

This song is so simple and says so much to me. I must admit for some time I didn't like it at all. Then I listened to it more deeply and it had a profound effect.
I am involved in education as a school governor and admire teachers who can maintain their originality under the stress and strain of the job. I admire those who can instil and engender enthusiasm in children, who treat them as individuals and encourage their creativity.
Here in a nutshell is what Harry is trying to say. This is an extremely sad song. Don't we all know teachers and people in life who act exactly how the person does in the first few verses here? This teacher is trying to make the young boy conform. In other words she is destroying his view of the world and instructing him how the world should seem. Everything has a compartment, everything has a title.
There can be no room for originality. And so the youngster sucks in the teaching and sees the world how he is told to. He conforms.
But out there are adults who see the world as a place of joy, of opportunities to be grabbed. The problem is that they are working alone in a vacuum and are seen as a threat.
Sadly by the time the youngster has been indoctrinated there is no going back. He has become de-sensitised. He will conform, he has lost his charisma.
Isn't the world full of these people. Let's not shun originality, let's nurture it, after all wasn't Harry an original, a one off. Did he not make a difference. Did he not prove what one man can do? There are many parallels between this song and Cat's In the Cradle.
The little boy went 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 paintin' 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 everything young man And a way it should be done You've got to show concern for everyone else For you're not the only one And she said... Flowers are red young man Green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than they way they always have 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 the flower and I see every one Well the teacher said.. You're sassy There's ways that things should be And you'll paint flowers the way they are So repeat after me..... And she said... Flowers are red young man Green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than they way they always have 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 the flower and I see every one The teacher put him in a corner She said.. It's for your own good.. And you won't come out 'til you get it right And all 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.. and he said Flowers are red, green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than the way they always have 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 smilin' She said...Painting should be fun And there are so many colors in a flower So let's use every one But that little boy painted flowers In neat rows of green and red And when the teacher asked him why This is what he said.. and he said Flowers are red, green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than the way they always have been seen.

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