Teach Your Children

"Teach Your Children"
Single by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
from the album Déjà Vu
B-side	"Carry On"
Released	May 1970
Recorded	October 24, 1969
Genre	Country rock, folk rock
Length	2:53
Label	Atlantic
Writer(s)	Graham Nash
Producer(s)	Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singles chronology
"Woodstock" (1970) "Teach Your Children" (1970) "Ohio" (1970)

"Teach Your Children" is a song by Graham Nash. Although it was written when Nash was a member of the Hollies, it was never recorded by that group, and first appeared on the album Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released in 1970. The recording features Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar. Garcia had made an arrangement that in return for his playing pedal steel guitar on "Teach Your Children," CSNY would teach the members of the Grateful Dead how to sing harmony for their upcoming albums, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Released as a single, the song peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts that year.^[1] On the Easy Listening chart, "Teach Your Children" peaked at #28.^[2]

Nash, who is also a photographer and collector of photographs, has stated in an interview that the immediate inspiration for the song came from a famous photograph by Diane Arbus, "Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park." The image, which depicts a child with an angry expression holding the toy weapon, prompted Nash to reflect on the societal implications of messages given to children about war and other issues.^[3]

Song in Popular Culture

• The song was featured in a 1971 British film Melody.
• In 1984, Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale used the song in a campaign commercial on arms control.^[4]
• In 1986, Howard Stern released a parody of this song, with the subject being the Mary Beth Whitehead / Baby M surrogate birth case. The final lines were "don't inseminate someone you don't date, and buy a puppy".
• In 1994, Crosby, Stills & Nash re-recorded the song with guest vocals from country music artists Suzy Bogguss, Alison Krauss and Kathy Mattea, crediting the recording to "The Red Hots". This version was included on the album Red Hot + Country, a release by the Red Hot Organization benefiting AIDS awareness. The Red Hots' version of the song spent one week on the Hot Country Songs charts in October 1994, peaking at #75.^[5]
• The song was performed by Michael and Dwight on the 2006 The Office episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day".
• In 2015, the song was performed by Matthew Morrison on "Dreams Come True", the final episode of Glee.

References

1. "Déjà Vu: Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
2. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 67.
3. Interview with Bob Edwards, "Bob Edwards Weekend," broadcast on NPR February 14, 2009
4. Mondale ad
5. Whitburn, Joel (2008). Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008. Record Research, Inc. p. 342. ISBN 0-89820-177-2.