An elementary School Classroom in a slum

(Stephen spender)
Objectives:

To appreciate the poetic beauty

To interpret the poem
To identify the poetic devices.
Understanding the poem for comprehension.
To aware about the blight of slum dwellers.
Contents:Slum children living in Sub-human conditions
Slum children deluding elementary schools.
Poets own desire to improve their lot.
Methodology/Activities:ModelReading
SilentReading
Question Answer technique
Discussion on Slums.
Teaching Aids:

P.P.T Showing slum are a schools.

Handouts with question
An Elementary Classroom in a Slum by Stephen Spender
Background of the Poet:
Stephen Spender (1909-1995) was an English poet and essayist who took keen interest in
politics. He took keen interest in the Socialist school of thought which explains his stance
regarding the paradox of teaching elementary school children in a slum. His belief as strongly
recorded in the Poem, An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum is that it is mere wish
fulfilment to think that you can teach children on an empty stomach! Stephen Spender
became disillusioned by his tryst with socialism and he wrote about this disillusionment in an
essay written by him in a book titled, The God That failed.

Values raised in the poem: Sensitivity to the underprivileged, equity, equality, awareness,
philanthropy, optimism, determination, change etc.

Background of the poem:

Written in 1964, the best example of Spenders political voice resonating in a poem.

Expresses his ideological positions on government, economics, and education.

The students in this classroom are underprivileged and malnourished.

The capitalistic government is supposed to supply equal opportunity for education,

but the classroom in the slum offers little hope for change or progress.

A commentary about race issues in American education and a Socialist proclamation

against capitalism and social injustice in general.

Although Spender was British, the poem names no nation or race and was a response
to the global question concerning social injustice which was an essential issue in the
American Civil Rights movement of the time.

The poets tone changes from pensive to belligerent and frustrated to an appeal

Explanation of the Poem:

Stanza 1
The poet says that the condition of the children in a slum school is pathetic. Their world is far
removed from the open, enthusiastic, healthy environment. They are as unwanted as the
rootless weeds. Their hair is unkempt and they have pale faces which clearly indicate their
deprived and under-nourished condition. These children, as the tall girl, are stressed by the
burden of their circumstances and malnourished. They are exhausted both physically as well
as emotionally. The paper-thin boy is too skinny. His eyes have a scared, hungry look. These
unfortunate beings have inherited only disease and bad luck from their parents. One of the
diseased ones cant even get up from the desk to recite his lesson. However, there is one child
at the back of the class who is younger than the others and often goes unnoticed. His
inexperienced eyes are full of hope and he is dreaming about playing games in the open and
of a reality different from his life in the slum. Stanza 2 The classroom walls have a faded,
negligent appearance as they havent been painted for a long time. In other words, these
children inhabit a world which is dreary and depressing. On the walls are displayed the
donations given by people such as the bust of Shakespeare with the background of a clear sky

at the time of sun-rise. The walls also have scenic pictures of Tyrolese Valley with its
beautiful flowers presenting a world of heavenly splendour. Apart from all this, the walls also
have a map revealing the world. But the world the children view from the classrooms
windows is foggy and harsh. It represents a dark and bleak future with no hope for
improvement. Their eyes can only view a narrow road which is enclosed by a dull sky. The
poet suggests that these children are trapped in a hopeless situation and their reality is far
removed from the literary world which glistens with the beauty of nature such as the rivers,
the high land jutting from the sea and is full of glorious words.
Stanza 3
The pensive poet suddenly turns belligerent (aggressive) and feels that Shakespeare is
wicked. This is because his words mislead the children. He shows them a beautiful world of
ships, sun and love which is not only unreal for them but it has a corrupting influence on
these children and instigates them to steal to try and escape their cramped holes. On this path,
their foggy world would turn into endless night. These emaciated children are so thin that it
appears that they are wearing skins. The spectacles they are wearing have glass which has
been broken and mended. Their entire appearance reeks of their deprivation. The poet shows
his outrage by suggesting that the maps on their walls should show huge slums instead of
beautiful scenic graphics.
Stanza 4
The poet appeals to the governor, inspector and visitor to do something to improve the
condition of these children. If there is political will, this map showing the beautiful world
outside can become their reality too. The poet hopes the authorities would realize their moral
responsibilities and free these children from their grave-like entrapments (catacomb cave).
He wants all the barriers to be pulled down; barriers that keep away true education from
them. The children must be given freedom to experience the wholesome bounties of natureview the green fields and run on gold sand. The poet begs to let them read books and form
their opinions. Let them breathe in fresh air. Let them discover themselves and let them be
creative so that their names can also enter the books of history. Let them find their place in
the sun. Stephen Spender highlights the plight of slum children by using vivid images and apt
words to picture a classroom in a slum

Poetic Devices: Like rootless weeds simile

Paper-seeming boy metaphor
Rats eyes metaphor
Like bottle bits simile
Shut upon their lives like catacombs simile
Last four lines visual imagery

The theme of the poem

The central theme of the poem deals with the paradox of teaching elementary school children
in a slum. Spender very strongly believes that you cannot hope to provide education to
children who are poor and hungry. The sense of hopelessness and the lack of a bright future
symbolised by the words, fog, and foggy slum suggest that the very purpose of educating
these children has been defeated. Poverty, hunger, hopelessness, and the fact that they are cut
of from the rest of the world since they are bound by their poverty is expressed in the words,
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky, and catacombs lead to the poets belief that the
only solution is to, break the town and let the children run free on gold sands and to, let
their tongues run naked into books the white and green leaves. What Spender means is that it
is only after the policy makers have addressed the problem of poverty and its attendant
problems like malnourishment and inherited diseases that you can hope to provide an
education that is empowering in the true sense!

Important metaphors used by Spender The poem, An Elementary School Classroom in a

Slum contains a few very important metaphors that support the poets attitude towards the
idea of teaching children who are impoverished. The metaphor of Shakespeares Head,
represents the teaching of concepts and ideas that the students are not able to relate to because
of their impoverished nature. The children are so poor malnourished, tired and hopeless that
they dont have the luxury of leisure to study works by Shakespeare. Moreover, Shakespeare
is wicked, the map a bad example because their exclusiveness tempts them to steal. It is
ironical that by teaching them about Shakespeare, you are in fact teaching the students to

steal. What they cant hope to achieve in the normal course of time, they will try to achieve
through unfair and illegal means, and this is more so because you have taught these children
that Shakespeare is good, and the world shown in the map is good. The children will
therefore try to achieve the good things in life by hook or crook! The metaphor of Nature as a
teacher appears in the last stanza and it is represented in the words, gold sands and the
books with, white and green leaves. The green leaves are pages in the book of Nature. The
Open ended map rather paradoxically is a metaphor for slavery or imprisonment because it
shuts upon their lives like catacombs. What Spender suggests is that you cant hope to teach
the impoverished children about the real world by showing them the map because then they
are reminded about the world they live in and the hopelessness that shuts upon them like,
Catacombs a twisted maze from which there is no escape. What they can relate to, therefore
is not what is shown in the map, but rather the world of poverty and misery that they can see
through the windows of their classroom. The windows of the classroom are the true maps that
they can relate to, not the open ended map! The Sun, incidentally is a metaphor for freedom
as opposed to the fog. Spender makes it clear that history can be written only by those
whose language is the sun. It is clear that the message that Spender wants to pass on to the
reader is that the fruits of education can be enjoyed only by those who are free from the
shackles of poverty. A hard hitting point, but then what Spender seeks to express is the idea
that policy makers should target the poverty of the children before attempting to provide them
with education!

The tone of the poem The tone of the poem is rather sombre and profound mainly because
the poet is trying to express a rather serious problem that affects our society at large. The
descriptions of the foggy atmosphere, the narrow street sealed in with a lead sky, the, slag
heapskins peeped through by bones , and spectacles of steel with mended glass all add to
the rather festering and palpable atmosphere of poverty and hopelessness. The poet wants to
deliberately shake the reader out of his sense of complacency so that he or she realizes that
mere donations or high ideals of providing an education that is supposed to be empowering
are useless as long as they dont target the problem of poverty. Poverty is a glaring problem
in todays world and it needs to be tackled before anything can be done to further the

development and empowerment of the society. The image of the, slag heap bottle bits on
stones creates a rather overwhelming sense of hopelessness that can be linked to the dehumanisation of the society. What comes to mind is the image of society that has devolved
into a the Wasteland as described by T.S. Eliot in his poem with the same name. The overall
tone of sadness and gloom is paradoxical in nature as it highlights the irony of life in the
twenty-first century in spite of all the technological advancement that is taking place. The gap
between the rich and the poor is aptly brought out in this poem.

The philosophy of the Poet Stephen Spenders poem, An Elementary School Classroom in
a Slum very aptly encapsulates his philosophy of life which is based on the themes of social
injustice and class inequalities. The poet constantly highlights his belief in the paradox of
poverty, the idea that the more advanced the society, the larger the gap between the poor and
the rich. His philosophy of life exposes the sham that exists in the society today, and the socalled hollowness in the intentions of the humanitarians of the world who want to do good to
the underprivileged by donating gifts which are in effect of no use.