Class 12 English NCERT Solutions Chapter-2 Poem - An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
FAQs on NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Chapter 2 - An Elementary School Classroom In A Slum
1. Depict a contrast between the world of children and the decorations depicted in the classroom in the poem.
Ans: The decorations on the walls of the classrooms represent education, vastness, honour, beauty, and civility contrasting to the poverty-stricken and neglected kids. These kids lack freedom, education, beauty, development to explore the world, and promises of an unstable future. These decorations act as a temptation for them to take the wrong path to achieve such things. Thus, it juxtaposed the represented world and the confined, sealed reality of the kids in the same classroom.
2. How does the poet describe ‘their’ lives?
Ans: The poet describes the plight of the children stating that they have spent their entire lives living in a confined state, in crumpled holes like rodents. The children are victims of malnutrition just bony and skinny and look like broken pieces of a bottle scattered on stones. They have a bleak future with numerous uncertainties. The only certainty in their lives is an endless walk wandering for death. Thus, their birth, life, and death are all engulfed by the brink of darkness.
3. What is the theme of the poem “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum”? How has it been presented?
Ans: An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum, written by Stephen Spender, is a wonderful poem that elucidates the multiple forms of social injustice rampant in our world. This poem illustrates the pitiful situation of the students studying in a dingy, crammed up elementary school classroom in a slum area. Spender has tried to draw people's attention to the terrible condition of the students in this school to improve their lives.
4. Despite despair and disease pervading the lives of the slum children, they are not devoid of hope. Give an example of their hope or dream.
Ans: The boy lost in the squirrel’s game is a striking example of the dreams and future hopes of the children studying in the elementary school classroom in the slum.The author is trying to say that despite all the hardships these children face, they haven’t lost all the hope. It is imperative for students to take a leaf from the boy’s book and try to inculcate the hope portrayed by him in our everyday life. For a more detailed explanation, you can view the free solutions for Chapter 2 of Flamingo available on Vedantu’s website and on the Vedantu app. Resources for further studying are also available on Vedantu’s website.
5. What do you understand by the paper seeming boy in the poem “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum”? And, what does Shakespeare's head symbolize?
Ans: The paper seeming boy with rat’s eyes depicts the sick and spectre-thin, malnourished state that the boy is in. This elaborates how they have no access to the basic survival necessities of life such as food and healthcare. His eyes are of a rat, or a scavenger, that is continuously searching for food.
Shakespeare’s head is symbolic of the unattainable heights and preaching that is done in the classroom despite the absence of necessities required to sustain life.
6. What is the central idea of the poem “An Elementary School Classroom In A Slum”? What kind of teaching is imparted at the elementary school in the slum?
Ans: The central idea of the poem “An Elementary School Classroom In A Slum” is to showcase the sheer lack of all things considered necessary to live, including food and clean water. Stephen Spender provides an outstanding picture of the sorry state of the children studying and the difference our attitude towards them can make.
The teaching at the elementary school classroom is out of reach for most children. For them, it is just random words because they have never got the opportunity to step outside the slum. For children who don’t get enough food to fill their stomachs, Shakespeare is a far-fetched dream.
7. Which map is the poet talking about in the poem “An Elementary School Classroom In A Slum”? What plea has been made by the poet in the poem “An Elementary School Classroom In A Slum”?
Ans: The map stuck on the walls of the elementary school classroom is representative of the bounties and wonders of the outside world. This world remains out of reach for these slum children, because their aspirations and dreams are restricted only to this world of sadness and decay. Thus, Stephen Spender aptly refers to the map as a bad example.
The poet’s plea is to the authorities to let the kids explore places beyond the slum, visit them as well as experience these locations drawn on the maps. Stephen Spender wants these children to experience and explore the warm sun on beaches, the blue sky, and the green grass to educate and empower them while ending their economic backwardness.