Tag Archives: children

Teach Your Children Well by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

According to Song Facts.com, “Graham Nash wrote this. The lyrics deal with the often difficult relationship he had with his father, who spent time in prison.

Jerry Garcia performs the pedal steel guitar part of this track. He had been playing steel guitar for only a short period of time. Garcia played on this album in exchange for harmony lessons for the Grateful Dead, who were at the time recording their acoustic albums Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty.

Graham Nash (from the liner notes of their 1991 boxed set): “The idea is that you write something so personal that every single person on the planet can relate to it. Once it’s there on vinyl it unfolds, outwards, so that it applies to almost any situation. ‘Teach’ started out as a slightly funky English folk song but Stephen (Stills) put a country beat to it and turned it into a hit record.”

Deja Vu (released in 1970) was the first album the band recorded with Neil Young, but Young did not play on this.”

According to Wikipedia and this video, this song was immediately inspired by a Life magazine photograph by Diane Arbus titled “Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park.”

This picture prompted Graham Nash to pen down his thoughts on the social implications of messages given to children about war and other issues as well as his own relationship with his father.

 

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Father’s Day quotes

“Many men have children, but not many children have ‘Fathers’. Age releases to you reproductive skills. Fatherhood requires LEADERSHIP skills”
― Fela Durotoye

 

“Before I got married I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories.”
― John Wilmot

 

“On the perfect Father’s Day. There would be just Dad, wearing his oldest surviving undershorts, free of pressure, maybe just sitting in front of the TV, watching the NBA finals. There would be no conversation, other than Dad periodically observing that these players today could carry the ball across Montana and never get called for traveling. … Of course, that’s not all. You’d also make a restaurant reservation, and at the end of the day, you’d dress up and go out and have a nice dinner, during which you’d propose a toast to Dad. Who would be back home, in front of the TV, happily asleep in his veteran underwear.”
– Dave Barry

 

“Listen, there is no way any true man is going to let children live around him in his home and not discipline and teach, fight and mold them until they know all he knows. His goal is to make them better than he is. Being their friend is a distant second to this.”
― Victor Devlin

 

“Finally coming to terms with Fathers Day. I blow as a Dad. I get it. No, I’m not an evil, abusive Father, it’s just that while all my intentions and thoughts have been out of love for my kids, my actions and behaviour never measured up.”
― Geoffrey Hill

 

“The only Father’s Day tradition in my family is the annual conversation he and I have where I say, ‘Hey, Dad, what do you want for Father’s Day this year?’ and he says, ‘Nothing.’ Then I ask my mom what I should get him and she says, ‘He likes sandalwood soap, dangly jewelry and Chanel No 5 perfume.'”
– Michael Showalter

 

 

“The greatest mark of a father is how he treats his children when no one is looking.”
― Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing

 

“The best gift you can give to your kids is a happy marriage.”
― Ricky Shetty

 

“The greatest lessons I learned from my father didn’t come from lectures or discipline or even time spent together. What has stuck with me is his example. From watching, I chose whether to be or not to be like him.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year

 

“I felt something I had never felt before, a mixture of fear and pride. I liked it. This was fatherhood. The biggest mistake anyone could make, and yet universally accepted. I had arrived.”
― Carl-John X. Veraja

 

“Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.”
– Red Buttons

 

“Why do men like me want sons?” he wondered. “It must be because they hope in their poor beaten souls that these new men, who are their blood, will do the things they were not strong enough nor wise enough nor brave enough to do. It is rather like another chance at life; like a new bag of coins at a table of luck after your fortune is gone.”
― John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold

 

“Having children is like living in a frat house – nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up.”
– Ray Romano

 

“It is very easy to be a military strategist, a mercenary, or a king, but much harder to be a father.”
― Nadia Scrieva, Tides of Tranquility

 

“I’m very at ease, and I like it. I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn’t think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that’s happening to me. I’m rather surprised at who I am, because I’m actually like my dad!”
― David Bowie

 

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.”
– Mark Twain (attributed)

 

“Today is not the real Father’s Day. It is the man made version. The real Father’s Day are the other 364 other days of the year that I get to see my boys grow into men and my girls grow into ladies and feel I had a slight part of the people that they turned out to be.Not a better feeling in the world.With every life lesson taught, half of which are understood at the time, and the other half that are understood after I am told to stop being ridiculous – EVERYDAY is Father’s Day.And I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Good and bad.I can honestly say there is no feeling on earth, like being a father and a dad.” ― John A. Passaro