NCERT Class 6 English Unit 5 Poem – Where Do All The Teachers Go?

Where Do All The Teachers Go?NCERT Class 6 English Unit 5 Poem

Working with the poem (Page 68)

Question 1:

Answer these questions.

(i) Why does the poet want to know where the teachers go at four o’clock?

(ii) What are the things normal people do that the poet talks about?

(iii) What does he imagine about

(a) where teachers live?

(b) what they do at home?

(c) the people with whom they live?

(d) their activities when they were children in school?

(iv) Why does the poet wonder if teachers also do things that other people do?

(v) How does the poet plan to find out? What will he do once he finds out?

Answer:NCERT Class 6 English Unit 5 Poem

(i) The poet does not consider teachers as ordinary persons. He feels that they are special human beings. Hence, he wants to know where the teachers go at four o’clock and what they do after the school hours.

(ii) According to the poet, normal people live in houses, freshen up after returning home, wear pyjamas, wash their clothes, watch TV, live with their parents, make mistakes, lose books, get punished, scribble on their desks, wear old dirty jeans and linen, etc.

(iii)

(a) He imagines that his teachers live in houses along with their families.

(b) They wash their socks, wear pyjamas at home, pick on their noses and even watch TV.

(c) They live with their parents and other family members.

(d) During childhood, even they were bad, made mistakes, spelled a word incorrectly and were punished for eating chocolates in class, they lost their hymn books, scribbled on desk tops or even wore dirty jeans, etc.

(iv) The poet wonders if teachers also do things that other people do because he thinks that they are not ordinary, but special human beings. He assumes that these teachers are always strict, never made any mistakes and are ideal in all respects.

(v) The poet decided to get the first hand information of his teachers by following them on the way back home so that he can find out what they do after reaching home. Once he knows what they do, he plans to compose a poem, which the teachers would then read out to their students.

Question 2:

What do you think these phrases from the poem mean?

(i) punished in the corner

(ii) leave their greens

Answer:

(i) punished in the corner: This phrase means getting caught for a misdeed in class and made to stand in the corner of the classroom as a punishment.

(ii) leave their greens: Some children leave cooked green vegetables uneaten or throw them into the dustbin. The phrase “leave their greens” in the poem means that teachers eat green vegetables and do not throw them away.