NCERT Class 7 English Chivvy

Chivvy

Ask yourself as well as your partner: Do you like to be always told what to do or not to do? Do grown-ups do this, in your experience? When Michael was five years old, his mother took him to a nearby school for admission. The teacher asked, “What does your mother call you at home, child?” “Michael Don’t,” came the confident reply.

Read the poem now.

Grown-ups say things like:

Speak up

Don’t talk with your mouth full

Don’t stare

Don’t point

Don’t pick your nose

                               Sit up

                               Say please

                               Less noise

                               Shut the door behind you

                               Don’t drag your feet

                               Haven’t you got a hankie ?

                               Take your hands out of

                               your pocket

Pull your socks up

Stand up straight

Say thank you

Don’t interrupt

No one thinks you’re funny

Take your elbows off the table

Can’t you make your own

mind up about anything ?

Working with the Poem

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.

(ii) When are you likely to be told this? Say thank you.

(iii) When do you think an adult would say this? No one thinks you are funny.

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?

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?

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.

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 7 English Chivvy