Summary of An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum is a poem written by English poet and essayist Stephen Spender. It talks about the depleted and degraded conditions of slums. The people living there undergo a lot of challenges in acquiring simple daily life necessities like food, clothes and education. The children, who are generally considered to be the future of a community, do not get proper attention and care in slums. They are devoid of proper education, food, healthcare facilities, etc. Spender points out the tragedy in detail through his description of an elementary school classroom and the condition of the students in it. He explains that donations made to the school are not enough to create a bright future for the children since the only world they have access to is the poor unfortunate slum around them. An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum Summary is a part of BYJU’S CBSE Summary. Students can also visit CBSE Notes to access notes and learning materials on Class 12 CBSE English.
CBSE Class 12 English An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum Summary
The poet describes the appearance of the students in an elementary school classroom in a slum. He calls their faces far away from gusty waves. Unlike the powerful waves on a beach, these children are weak, timid and do not have confidence in themselves. The poet is using this analogy to show the difference between children brought up in well-to-do families and children brought up in slums. Their place of origin defines their fate.
Their hair is devoid of nutrition, like rootless weeds and scattered around their pale faces. There is a tall girl with her head bent down. This shows the effect of malnutrition and family woes due to poverty. She is not learning much as she is immersed in worry and anxiety. A boy sitting in the classroom is so thin that he has no substantial body weight. His eyes look like those of a rat – stealthy and hungry. This is an indication of dire economic conditions in the slum. Another student who is reading a poem has stunted growth, and the only thing that he could get as an inheritance was his father’s gnarled disease. A student sitting in the farthest corner is absorbed in a daydream of squirrels playing on trees. His mind is not in the classroom but in a world full of trees where squirrels are playing.
The poet then gives a description of the classroom in which the students are sitting. It has walls that are sour cream in colour. Due to the lack of renovation and constant exposure to dirt, the colour of the walls has faded. Receipts of donations can be seen on the walls. Clearly, the school does not have strong financial support and runs on the money donated to them as charity. There are pictures of Shakespeare and the Tyrolese valley. The poet reckons that these pictures add no value to the children’s education. The bald head of Shakespeare looks like a dome that represents civilisation. The poet uses the words ‘riding all cities’ to signify the hold of colonisation over countries that leads to exploitation. The whole reference to Shakespeare is also indicative of British colonialism. The Tyrolese valley represents a place the children dream of seeing.
The poet reveals another ironic stance where there is a map of the world on the walls, but for these slum children, the only world they have access to is the world outside their windows – the slum. They have no future, and their world resembles a narrow street that is sealed with a lead sky. The pollution and uncertainty of life in the slums have reduced the concept of a blue and open sky to a suffocating peril that looms over them. Their world is far from rivers and capes, and the slum children remain unknown to the names of stars and constellations.
Shakespeare represents iniquity since civilisation is a far-fetched concept for the slum children, and they just feel small and insignificant compared to the sophisticated world of civilisation. The map, with all its symbols of the sun and ships, just reminds them how far and inaccessible these are. Since they cannot have good things in life, they are tempted to steal these.
The lives of these children are miserable. They live in small houses that are devoid of space because all things are cramped together inside these. The poet reminds us that their lives are hopeless – like living in constant fog or endless nights. These children’s bodies are like heaps of industrial waste. They are skinny with protruding bones, and they wear spectacles made of steel and mended glass. All of their time and space is bleak as the fog. So, the poet recommends that the maps in their classrooms be blotted with slums as slums are the only places they will ever know.
The poet advises not giving false hopes to the children unless lawful authorities can shatter this world of permanent tragedy around them. Instead of the foggy windows through which children can only see the slum, the poet calls for the development of a system where the slum children can dream of seeing the rest of the world through their windows. The whole town should be given importance in terms of development. The children should be able to experience the sun, the green fields and the beaches. They should have access to proper education so they can reach newer heights of success and make history.
Conclusion of An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum ends on a strong note with a message for the authorities. He says that the slum children will be able to see a better and brighter future only if their path to development is made easy by the enforcement of necessary laws and granting of the right to a decent life by the government, police and visitors. The slum children should get the right to education and easy access to the basic necessities of life. If they can experience a childhood free of poverty and exploitation, they will be able to do something for themselves and their community in the future.
A detailed understanding of the poem can help students critically analyse and appreciate the poem. Students can refer to our website for further information and content related to the Class 12 English subject for better understanding and preparation for CBSE board exams. They can also access topics like grammar and writing in English.
