This animated video seamlessly updates CSNY’s classic hit ‘Teach Your Children’ for today’s politics
The social activism celebrated in the original merges with the student-led activism of 2018.
The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song Teach Your Children was originally released in 1970. The songwriter, Graham Nash, was inspired by the widespread protests and social activism of the 1960s in the US, which saw the civil rights movement and anti-war demonstrations.
More than 50 years later, Nash was witness to an encore as he watched the “March for Our Lives” protests for gun-control led by students who survived the Parkland shooting. This led him to work on the music video above with artist and animator Jeff Scher.
“We teach our children the best way we can, but we have to learn from our children, too, or else we are making a big mistake,” Nash told The Atlantic
“The song is so lovely and about halfway through it goes from ‘teach your children’ to children teaching your parents,” Scher told The Atlantic. “So [the shift from past to present] is built into the song. And the parallels that it’s 50 years from ’68 to now are just overwhelming. So it was a short leap.”