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74 Roads to education
6D
Culture, vocabulary and grammar
Life goals
The
Geography
Lesson
by Brian Patten (1946 – )
1
SPEAKING
Work in pairs. Look at the list of life
goals below. Choose the ones you think people
often achieve before they are twenty-one.
Compare your ideas.
get married have children find a job
travel and / or live abroad buy a house
learn how to drive
2
2.05
Read and listen to the poem. Who is it
about? What was his life goal? Did he achieve it?
3
Read the poem again. Match summaries a–f to
verses 1–6.
a
He loved these places, but he didn’t leave the school.
I didn’t know why.
b
At school, people tidied up his classroom. They forgot
about him, but I didn’t forget.
c
My teacher told our class that he wanted to travel the
world and see different countries.
d
He lived in an ugly house, but he often thought
about the beautiful places he wanted to visit.
e
Today, I visit the countries my teacher loved. I love
these places, too.
f
Then one day, my teacher didn’t come to school
because he was ill. He never visited the places he
talked about.
4
SPEAKING
Work in pairs. Think about the poem and
discuss the questions.
1
The poet couldn’t understand why the teacher didn’t
leave the school. Can you think of reasons why he
stayed?
2
The poet says: ‘But a lesson he never knew he taught /
Is with me to this day.’ What was that lesson?
v
Adjectives in poems
5
Read the poem again and underline the adjectives
the poet uses. What do they describe? Add them to
the table.
Places on the maps
warm, blue …
The teacher’s home
6
Study the adjectives in exercise 5. What parts of the
world do they describe? What other adjectives can
you use to describe these places?
7
2.05
Listen to the poem again and underline
the rhyming words at the end of the lines. Can you
think of other words which rhyme?
8
Study the words below. Do they rhyme with any of
the words that you underlined in the poem?
too learned free play told
9
Practise reading the poem out loud.
Think about the rhymes and the rhythm.
1
Our teacher told us one day he would leave
And sail across a warm blue sea
To places he had only known from maps,
And all his life had longed to be.
2
The house he lived in was narrow and grey
But in his mind’s eye* he could see
Sweet-scented jasmine clinging to* the walls,
And green leaves burning on an orange tree.
3
He spoke of the lands he longed to* visit,
Where it was never drab* or cold.
I couldn’t understand why he never left,
And shook off the school’s stranglehold*.