Where Do All the Teachers Go?

For a little child a teacher is special. It is difficult for a small child to think of his/her teacher as an ordinary person.

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 booksd
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.
Peter Dixon

WORKING WITH THE Poem

1. Answer these questions.

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

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

(iii) What does he imagine about

(a) where teachers live?

(b) what they do at home?

(c) the people with whom they live?

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

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

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

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

(i) punished in the corner

(ii) leave their greens