Cat Stevens "Where do the Children Play?"

I think the number one requirement for being a teacher is having a genuine and definite love and respect for children/youth. And with this genuine love is an absolute respect for children's safety and their place in the world. In Cat Steven's lyrics here he expresses this same idea in addition to the destruction of nature and over abundance of technology and power.

"What ought to guide me is not the question of neutrality in education but respect..."
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

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Well I think it's fine, building jumbo planes.
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Yes, get what you want to if you want, 'cause you can get anything.

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can't get off.

Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you've cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air.
But will you keep on building higher
'til there's no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?