1. Answer the following questions and do the given tasks: 1. What occupation did the whole school have each Friday morning Do you think this is common in the majority of schools? Why not? 2. What advantages did the Headmaster see in pupils' writing their Weekly Reviews? Can you find any disadvantages in the scheme? What's your opinion of it? What traits of character are necessary for a teacher to be involved in a scheme of the kind? 3. Why did the narrator feel "a mixture of relief and disappoint¬ment" after having read a few of his pupils' reviews? 4. In what way did the narrator try to explain his pupils' lack of interest concern¬ing his personality? 5. How did the narrator try to be a successful teacher? How helpful is it for a young teacher to read specialist books? Give reasons for your answer. 6. Do you find the children's unresponsiveness natural? How can you account for it? 7. What was the first phase in the narrator's relationship with his class? It was rather a quiet stage, wasn't it? Why then was the teacher dis¬satisfied with it? 8. In what way did he try to interest his pupils in the subject? Can you find any reasons to explain his failure? 9. Characterize the second phase of the pupils' campaign. Do you think the teacher is to blame for it? Do you agree with the narrator that "there was nothing he could do about it"? Do you think a teacher's aplomb can help under the circumstances? Do you find the second phase more unpleasant? Why? 10. Do you think the teacher's feelings are understandable? Would you try to stop the campaign? How? 11. What do you think of the third phase of the pupils' conduct? 12. The school described in the extract was situat¬ed in the East End of London. The pupils attending it had been poorly fed, clothed and housed. Some were from homes where the so-called bread-winner was chronically unemployed. Do you think the children's background can account for their bad language and misconduct? Can a teacher expect such a behaviour under other circumstances? 13. Can the pupils' behaviour be explained by the fact that their teacher was a Black? 14. The extract above describes the narrator's first weeks in school. Think of a possible develop¬ment of his relations with the class. Do you think the teacher will manage in the end to gain the children's confidence and respect? What methods and techniques would you advise him to use?