Carefully Taught
Author:
Blog About:
Carefully Taught
As true now if not more than it was in 1949.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urP7cnTwMQk
You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught from year to year,
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade—
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
You've got to be taught
to fear the rest
To think that it's only
your kind that's best
To ignore the hearts beating
inside others' chests
You've gotta be carefully taught
We've been cheated before
We'll be cheated again
In a mean little world
ruled by mean little men.
And the one chance for me
Is the life I know best.
To be on an island
And to hell with the rest.
I will cling to this island
Like a tree or a stone,
I will cling to this island
And be free—and alone.
You've to Be Carefully Taught
from the Musical South Pacific
Words and music by
Oscar Hammerstein II and
Richard Rogers
(adapted lyrics by Ben Wittman and Heather Bambrick)
Sung by Heather Bambrick