Question 1.
Discuss these questions in small groups before you answer them.
(i) When is a grown-up likely to say this?
Don’t talk with your mouth full.
Answer:
A grown up is likely to say this when a child is 2 or 3 years old. This will be said when a child is talking while eating.
(ii) When are you likely to be told this? Say thank you.
Answer:
I will be told to say thank you’ when I am about five to six years old.
(iii) When do you think an adult would say this ? No one thinks you are funny.
Answer:
I think this will be told when one starts understanding things.
Question 2.
The last two lines of the poem are not prohibitions or instructions. What is the adult now asking the child to do? Do you think the poet is suggesting that this is unreasonable ? Why ?
Answer:
The child is now growing up. He is about to enter his teens. So, he is being told to make out choices and take his own decision. I think the poet is suggesting that it is unreasonable because all the time he had been told to do this or don’t do that. So how he can think independently now.
Question 3.
Why do you think grown-ups say the kind of things mentioned in the poem ? Is it important that they teach children good manners, and how to behave in public?
Answer:
I think the grown-ups give such instructions because they want to make their children more sensible and better citizens. It is very important to teach children good manners and how to behave in public. This will make children well-behaved and useful members of society.
Question 4.
If you had to make some rules for grown-ups to follow, what would you say? Make at least five such rules. Arrange the lines as in a poem.
Answer:
Don’t nag us.
Let us think independently.
Let us take our own decisions.
Give us clean and green environment.
Guide us but don’t goad us.