...particularly a special educator...
...and a parent,
the words to this song break my heart.
How about you?
FLOWERS ARE RED
by Harry Chapin
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.
"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."
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."
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.
"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."
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 are 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, 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,"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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Some things are black and white - two plus two, for example, will always be four - but no two snowflakes are the same, and neither are any two children, not even twins. Quite obviously, that teacher had never heard the likes of Picasso, Van Gogh, da Vinci, Michaelangelo, etc. What a sad and lonely life is one with no imagination. Unfortunately, that's not just a song - there really are grown-ups just like that who have no idea what it is to be a kid, and so they refuse to allow children to just be... children.
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