CBSE Class 12 English An Elementary School Classroom In A Slum Assignment Set B

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS :

Question. ‘At the back of the dim class …’ Why is the classroom dim ?
Answer: It is dim as it is poorly lit and in a miserable condition.

Question. What is the theme of the poem ?
Answer: The poem focuses on the theme of social injustice and inequalities. The poet presents it by talking of the two different worlds – the rich and the civilized and the world of the poor and the deprived.

Question. What does the poet tries to depict in the poem?
Answer: The poet tries to depict the pathetic and miserable picture of the elementary classroom in a slum. It is poorly lit and needs repair. The children attending it are in a pitiable and miserable condition.

Question. Do these children have dreams ?
Answer: Yes, some of them do have dreams. A sweet young boy is sitting at the back of the dim classroom dreaming of a squirrel’s game.

Question. What has been said about their future ?
Answer: Their future is painted with fog. Their future is not clear.There is no one to guide them.

Question. Why is the map a bad example ?
Answer: The children have never gone out of the slum. Their life is in the slum. Therefore, the map on the wall of the classroom is a bad example since they cannot understand it.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

One Long Answer type question from Prose/Poetry (Flamingo) to be answered in 120-150 words to assess global comprehension and extrapolation beyond the text Questions to provide evaluative and analytical responses using incidents, events, themes as reference points. Any 1 out of 2 questions to be done.

Question. What is the message that Stephen Spender wants to give through the poem. An Elementary School Classroom In a Slum’?
Answer: In ‘An Elementary School Classroom In a Slum’ the poet Stephen Spender deals with the themes of social injustice and class inequalities. There are two different worlds. The world of so called ‘civilized’ men has nothing to do with the children living in slums. Nor have the art, culture and literature any relevance to them. They live in dark, narrow cramped, holes and lanes. Unless the wide gap between the two worlds is abridged there can’t be any real progress or development. The barriers that bind them will have to be made mentally and physically free to lead happy lives.

Question. Write in brief the summary of the poem.
Answer: The poet describes some children sitting in an elementary school in a slum. The children sitting here present a very miserable view. Their hair are like weeds and scattered on their pale face. A tall girl is sitting with her head bent. There is a small and thin looking boy. His eyes are like that of a rat’s eyes. Then there is an another boy who has disease of swollen and twisted bones and joints. He has got his disease from his father.
The poet notices a young and sweet boy sitting at the back of the class. He is perhaps dreaming about the squirrel’s game in a tree-room for him¬self also. The poet says that the walls of the classroom are cream. They smell like sour cream. There is a bust of Shakespeare in the classroom. There are pictures of big church and the Tyrolese valley having bell-shaped flowers. There is an open-handed map, which shows all the places of the world. But ironically for the children living in the slum their world is not that map but only the scene that can be seen outside the window of their classroom.