“We’ve all a great deal to reproach ourselves with.” Why did M. Hamel blame the parents and himself too for not showing due attention and care to the learning of French?

Question: “We’ve all a great deal to reproach ourselves with.” Why did M. Hamel blame the parents and himself too for not showing due attention and care to the learning of French?

Answer: M. Hamel did not hold Franz responsible for neglecting the learning of French. Most people of Alsace only pretended to be Frenchmen. But they could neither speak nor write their own language. The parents were not anxious to have them learn. They preferred to put children on a farm or at the mills to earn a little more money. He even held himself responsible as he often sent his students to water his flowers instead of learning their lessons. He also used to give a holiday whenever he wanted to go fishing.

More Question-

1. Why was the peddler surprised when he knocked on the door of the cottage? [CBSE (AI) 2011]
2. “Edla sat and hung her head even more dejectedly than usual.” Which two reasons forced her to behave in that manner? [CBSE (F) 2010]
3. How is ‘Shakespeare's wicked and the map a bad example’ for the children of the school in a slum?
4. How does the poem, ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’, portray the children?
5. What message does Stephen Spender convey through the poem: ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’?
6. What is the message that Stephen Spender wants to convey through this poem?
7. Explain; ‘From fog to endless night.’
8. What is the irony in ‘run azure on gold sands?’
9. What is the theme of the poem, ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’?
10. The poet says, ‘And yet, for these children, these windows, not this map, their world...’ Which world do these children belong to? Which world is inaccessible to them?
11. In spite of despair and disease pervading the lives of the slum children, they are not devoid of hope. How far do you agree?
12. What does the poet want for the children of the slums?
13. What does Stephen Spender want to be done for the children of the school in a slum?
14. 'So blot their maps with slums as big as doom,' says Stephen Spender. What does the poet want to convey?
15. How does the poet describe the classroom walls?
16. What picture of male chauvinism (tyranny) do we find in the poem, ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’?
17. How are the tigers different from her?
18. What is the weight that lies heavy on Aunt Jennifer’s hand? How is it associated with her husband?
19. What will happen to Aunt Jennifer’s tigers when she is dead?
20. How does the poet describe Aunt Jennifer’s tigers?
21. What do you mean by the certainty that the tigers possess?
22. How has Aunt Jennifer created her tigers? What traits of tigers do they reveal?