Important Question and Answers
Q. How did Miss Beam look like?
Ans. Miss Beam was a middle aged, authoritative woman. She was kind and understanding. Since she was middleaged, her hair had started turning grey. She had a motherly plump figure.
Q. “This is only her lame day.” What do you mean by this?
Ans. ‘This means that the girl is lame only for that day and it was her turn to be lame. She will become thoughtful and kind about those who are actually lame, after this exercise.
Q. What was the real aim of Miss Beam’s school?
Ans. The real aim of Miss Beam’s school was to inculcate thoughtfulness and kindness in the children by themselves, experiencing the same pain and helplessness that a blind, deaf, dumb or lame child will feel.
Q. What method was adopted to prepare the children for the blind day?
Ans. The children were prepared for the blind day as their eyes were bandaged and they were advised not to peep through them. The bandage was put on overnight, so they woke up blind and could see nothing.
Q. What was done to make children appreciate and understand misfortune?
Ans. To make the children understand and appreciate misfortune, they were made to keep one day each term as a blind day, deaf day, dumb day or injured day.
Q. Who are helpers in the story?
Ans. The helpers are those children who are given duty to help other children who are deaf, dumb or blind for the day.
Q. What was done on a ‘dumb day’ and why was it the most difficult according to some children?
Ans. On a dumb day, the children were expected to be honest and exercise their will-power to keep quiet. Because the mouth can not be bandaged. That is why some children felt dumb day was the most difficult day.
Q. Who is Millie?
Ans. Millie is the head girl of Miss Beam’s school.
Q. How did the girl explain the ‘bad days’? Why were they bad?
Ans. Amongst the bad days, the day when the arm was tied up was troublesome, because you need help for eating, to doing any other work. Being blind on the blind day was also a bad day because the head ached and there was fear of getting hurt all the time.
Q. How did this ‘game’ help the children?
Ans. The ‘game’ of becoming blind, lame, deaf or dumb for a day helped the children to understand the pain of misfortune and the need to help the sufferer.
Q. What did Miss Beam mean by ‘thoughtfulness’?
Ans. By ‘thoughtfulness’, Miss Beam meant kindness to others and a sense of duty.
Q. Why is the author pained?
Ans. The author was pained to see a few children not quite healthy and active. They carried bandage on their eyes or crutches under their arms.
Q. Who was Miss Beam?
Ans. Miss Beam was a kind and generous lady and the owner of the school. She was a middle-aged, full of authority, yet very understanding lady. Her hair was grey Her school taught students how to become responsible citizens and help those who were disabled to help themselves.
Q. The dumb day is the most difficult day. Why?
Ans. The dumb day is the most difficult day for the children because, bandage cannot be put on the children’s mouth, but they have to show their firm will-power to be silent throughout the day without uttering a single word.
Q. What did the author see out of the window?
Ans. The author saw beautiful grounds and a lot of jolly children. The all children were not looking healthy and active. He saw girls with poor eyesight and other problems.
Q. What was the difference between Miss Beam’s school and the other schools?
Ans. This was a unique idea of Ms. Beam to have a different school from other schools because her school taught moral values, thoughtfulness and kindness apart from general study, while all other schools focus on teaching subjects and their syllabus. Miss Beam thought that it was important for children to understand misfortune and sufferings of others. They should not only understand but also feel and share the misfortune of others in order to make themselves responsible citizens. The teaching methods of the school were quite different from other schools. Children also used to follow all the instructions given to them from time to time.
Q. What is your opinion about the teaching methods of Miss Beam’s school. Whether they were correct or not? Give reasons to support your answer.
Ans. In my opinion the teaching methods of Miss Beam’s school were correct and appropriate to show their sympathy. Each term every child had one blind day, one lame day, one deaf day, one injured day and one dumb day in the school. Through this method the students will undergo pain and suffering and they will understand misfortune of disabled persons on these days the children are unable to do anything themselves and needed help and other children are given the duty of helping them. All the children learn many things with this teaching method. This will make them responsible and better citizen for future.