What traumatic event does Zitkala-Sa describe at the school?

The forcible cutting of her long hair

Why was the cutting of her hair so humiliating to Zitkala-Sa?

Among her people, shingled hair was worn by cowards and mourners

How are the faces of the slum children described?

Their faces are pale and lifeless, lacking the natural energy of childhood, weighed down by poverty, hunger and despair.

Describe the tall girl and the paper-thin boy in the classroom.

The tall girl sits with her head bowed down, burdened with weariness, while the paper-thin boy has the stunted, rat-like look of inherited disease and hunger.

What is unusual about the sweet young boy at the back?

Unnoticed and dreaming, his mind is elsewhere — on a squirrel's game in the open trees — escaping the dreary classroom in his imagination.

What do the pictures and the map on the classroom walls represent?

They represent a world of beauty, knowledge and possibility — far removed from and inaccessible to the impoverished slum children.

Why does the poet call the map on the wall meaningless for the children?

Because the wide, beautiful world it shows is out of their reach; their real world is the narrow slum street under a lead sky, so the map only mocks them.

What is meant by the children's future being a 'fog'?

Their future is uncertain, dim and hopeless, obscured by the poverty and deprivation that surround them.

Whom does the poet appeal to in the final stanza, and for what?

He appeals to governors, inspectors and visitors — those in power — to break the barriers of the slum and free the children to reach green fields, books and the sun.

What does the poet mean by letting the children reach the sun and books?

He pleads for them to be given access to nature, education, freedom and the bright opportunities of life that they are currently denied.

How does the poem contrast two worlds?

It contrasts the bleak, grey, closed slum world of the children with the bright, beautiful, open world of art, nature and learning on the walls and beyond.

What is the central theme of the poem?

It is a powerful protest against social injustice and inequality, urging reform so that deprived children may have light, freedom and opportunity.

An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum

Class 12 English · Flamingo – Poems · Chapter 2

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CBSE Class 12 · English Core

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CBSE Class 12 · English Core

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The story in short

Written by Stephen Spender, this poem exposes the grim plight of slum children in an elementary school and pleads for social reform. The poet paints a bleak picture of the classroom: the children's faces are pale and lifeless, far removed from the gusty energy of childhood. One tall girl is weighed down with weariness, a paper-thin boy has the stunted, rat-like look of disease and hunger inherited from his father, and another sweet young boy sits dreaming of games and the open air, his mind elsewhere. On the sour, cream-coloured walls hang donated pictures and a map of the world — Shakespeare's head, scenes of domes and bells, and beautiful valleys — which represent a world of beauty and possibility utterly out of the slum children's reach. For these children, the world that truly belongs to them is the cramped, narrow street sealed in with a lead sky; their future is a fog. The poet bitterly observes that the map on the wall is meaningless and even mocking unless their bleak reality changes. In the final stanza he appeals to those in power — governors, inspectors, visitors — to break the barriers of poverty and ignorance, to let these children escape the slum, run on green fields and reach the sun and books, for history is ultimately made by those who give the children freedom and light.

Social injustice and inequalityPoverty and deprivationNeed for educational reformImagery of confinementHope and freedom

Characters & key ideas

Stephen SpenderThe poet who pleads for reform for slum children.

Slum childrenThe pale, deprived pupils the poem describes.

Map on the wallThe image of a wider world out of the children's reach.

Lead skyThe image of the bleak, closed-in slum world.

Social inequalityThe injustice the poem exposes and protests.

ReformThe change the poet appeals to the powerful to bring.

Extra questions & answers (board-style)

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Who wrote "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum"?

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