An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
TEXTBOOK EXERCISES
1. Tick the item which best answers the following.
a) The tall girl with her head weighed down means the girl —
Answer: (i) is ill and exhausted.
b) The paper-seeming boy, with rat’s eyes means the boy is —
Answer: (ii) thin, hungry and weak.
c) The stunted, unlucky heir of twisted bones means the boy —
Answer: (i) has an inherited disability.
d) His eyes live in a dream of squirrel’s game in the tree room. This suggests that the boy —
Answer: (i) is full of hope for the future.
e) The children’s faces are compared to ‘rootless weeds’. This means they —
Answer: (i) are insecure.
2. What do you think is the colour of ‘sour cream’? Why has the poet used this expression to describe the classroom walls?
Ans: The colour of ‘sour cream’ is dull white or pale off-white. The poet uses this expression to show the dirty and unpleasant condition of the classroom walls. It reflects the depressing environment in which the slum children study. The word “sour” also suggests the bitter and uncomfortable atmosphere surrounding their lives.
3. How do the pictures and maps on the wall contrast with the world of the slum children?
Ans: The pictures and maps on the classroom walls represent beauty, knowledge and progress. They show famous personalities, buildings and a wide world full of opportunities. However, the slum children live in poverty, dirt and misery. For them these pictures have little meaning because their real world is very different from the beautiful world shown on the walls.
4. What does the poet want for the children of the slums? How can their lives be changed?
Ans: The poet wants the slum children to be freed from their unhealthy and poor surroundings. He wishes them to have proper education, better living conditions and opportunities for growth. Their lives can change if society provides them with good schools, open environments and equal chances to develop their talents.
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
1. What message does Stephen Spender convey through the poem An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum?
Ans: Through this poem, Stephen Spender highlights the problem of social inequality and injustice. He shows the harsh reality of slum children who live in poverty and neglect. The poet emphasizes that unless society removes this gap between the rich and the poor, true progress and development cannot be achieved.
2. Do the slum children have any dreams or hopes?
Ans: Yes, despite their miserable living conditions, the slum children still have dreams. They imagine a better life filled with freedom, nature and happiness. They dream of open seas, green fields and playful activities, which represent the life they wish to experience.
3. What does the poet mean by “So blot their maps with slums as big as doom”?
Ans: Through this line, the poet criticizes the society that ignores the suffering of slum dwellers. The world maps represent power and control by the rich, while the poor remain neglected. The poet wants society to recognize the harsh reality of slums and the suffering of people living there.
4. What should governors, teachers and other powerful people do to improve the lives of slum children?
Ans: Governors, teachers and other responsible people should work to remove social inequality. They must provide proper education, healthy living conditions and opportunities to slum children. By ensuring justice and equal rights, they can help these children live a better life.
5. Explain the statement: “History is theirs whose language is the sun.”
Ans: This line means that those who are confident, powerful and active in society shape history. People who speak with strength, courage and clarity are remembered and respected. The poet suggests that the slum children must be given opportunities so they too can become powerful contributors to society.
6. Why does Spender call Shakespeare “wicked” and the map a “bad example”?
Ans: Spender calls Shakespeare “wicked” because the literature and beauty represented by Shakespeare have little relevance to the harsh lives of slum children. Similarly, the world map is called a “bad example” because it shows a world of opportunities that these children cannot access. Their real life is far removed from the ideal world shown in books and maps.