HSC English First Paper | Unit: 5, Lesson: 3 | Adolescence | Why Does a Child Hate School?

Children's right to education also implies that the school they go to will have a pleasant and learning-friendly environment where everyone will have an enjoyable time. Teachers will be kind, caring and supportive and children will feel relaxed. No harsh words will be spoken to them and special care will be taken of children with learning disabilities.

That, unfortunately is not the general picture in our schools. The system of education in our part of the world does not allow children much freedom, and classrooms look more like cages where they are pent up for hours. Rabindranath Tagore (read his "An Eastern University" in Unit Six) found it unacceptable; so did William Blake (1757-1857), an English poet and painter, whose favourite subjects included children. In his poem "The School Boy" Blake writes about a young boy who is unhappy with his school where dour-faced teachers give joyless leassons. He would rather like to be outdoors and enjoy the summer day. He pleads with his parents to rescue him from the drudgery of school.

1. Warm up activities:

□ Think about your own school days. Did you feel like the boy in the poem or did you have a different experience? Discuss in a group.

□ Ask your friends to talk about their experiences in school and see where you are similar, and where different.

□ Give a 5 minute lecture in class on what you consider to be an ideal learning environment in school.

2. Now read the poem and answer the questions that follow:

'The Schoolboy' by William Blake

I love to rise in a summer morn,

When the birds sing on every tree;

The distant huntsman winds his horn,

And the skylark sings with me:

O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn,

O it drives all joy away!

Under a cruel eye outworn,

The little ones spend the day

In sighing and dismay.

Ah then at times I drooping sit,

And spend many an anxious hour;

Nor in my book can I take delight,

Nor sit in learning's bower,

Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy

Sit in a cage and sing?

How can a child, when fears annoy,

But droop his tender wing,

And forget his youthful spring!

O father and mother if buds are nipped,

And blossoms blown away;

And if the tender plants are stripped

Of their joy in the springing day,

By sorrow and care's dismay, -

How shall the summer arise in joy,

Or the summer fruits appear?

Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,

Or bless the mellowing year,

When the blasts of winter appear?

3. The poem begins by invoking a bright summer morning and ends with a 'blast of winter/ What is the significance of this shift?

4. The poem moves between innocence (first stanza) and loss of innocence (the remaining stanzas). What is behind the loss?

5. What does the boy do in school? How does he endure his joyless lessons?

6. What does 'a cruel eye outworn' refer to? What does 'dreary shower' refer to?

7. What request does the boy make to his parents?

8. What is the mood of the poem?

9. Find out the meaning of the following phrases:

a. sweet company    

b. drooping sit      

c. learning's bower

d. fears annoy  

e. buds are nipped

f. mellowing year

10. A metaphor is a comparison of one thing to another without the use of 'like' or 'as' to provide a clearer description. An example from the poem is 'learning's bower' which actually means a garden where a child can learn happily. Find a couple of other metaphors from the poem.

11. What is the meaning of the following words:

a. huntsman    

b. dismay    

c. dreary

d. annoy          

e. blast

12. Write a 150-200 word passage on the importance of joyful learning in

childhood.

 If you want to read the next lesson of this unit please click the link below:
Lesson 4: The Story of Shilpi