Where Do All the Teachers Go? English 6th - Poem-2 | Tulip-Series |

Poems - English 6th - Tulip Series

Poem 2: Where Do All the Teachers Go? (Peter Dixon)

Where do all the teachers go?

When it’s four o’clock?

Do they live in houses?

And do they wash their socks?

Do they wear pyjamas

And do they watch TV?

And do they pick their noses,

The same as you and me?

Do they live with other people?

Have they mums and dads?

And were they ever children,

And were they ever bad?

Did they ever, never spell right;

Did they ever make mistakes?

Were they punished in the corner?

If they pinched the chocolate flakes?

Did they ever lose their hymn books?

Did they ever leave their greens?

Did they scribble on the desk tops?

Did they wear old dirty jeans?

I’ll follow one back home today;

I’ll find out what they do.

Then I’ll put it in a poem

That they can read to you.

THINKING ABOUT THE POEM

1. Answer these questions:

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

Ans. The poet is curious to know about the teachers. He has some questions in mind about the living of the teacher because a teacher is a unique person who helps to build the nation. The poet wants to find out the answers to his questions that has been arisen in his mind.

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

Ans. The normal people wash socks, wear pyjamas, watch TV, pick their noses, live together with their parents and children.

(ii) What does he imagine about

(a) Where teachers live?

Ans. About the teachers, he imagines that they live in houses.

(b) What they do at home?

Ans. He imagines that the teachers wash socks, pick their noses or watch TV at home.

(c) The people with whom they live?

Ans. He imagines that the teachers live their parents and children at home.

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

Ans. He imagines that the teachers, when they were children in school, they never spell right, made mistakes, pinch chocolate flakes and scribble on desk.

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

Ans. A teacher is a unique person, if he does the thing that the people do, he will look ordinary in front of the student.

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

Ans. The poet plans to follow the teacher after four o’clock. When he finds out what the teachers do, then he will put it in a poem and the teachers will read this poem to the students.

2. What do you think these phrases from the poem mean?

(i) Punished in the corner.

Ans. The phrase ‘punished in the corner’ from the poem means that the students are punished by making them stand in the corner.

(ii) Leave their greens.

Ans. ‘Leave their greens’ from the poem means to leave the green food, such as salad, cooked vegetables like spinach, on the dining table or desks or to leave the school ground during the lesson.

‘Green’ is also the sign of non-violence, so to leave the greens means to be violent or to be naughty in case of school student.