This poem criticizes forceful teaching methods that punish and intimidate students. It tells the story of a young first grade student who is forced to stand in front of the class and recite a story from a book, but he is too afraid and unable to read. The letters on the page dance around and provide no meaning. However, when taken calmly to the office away from the stressful classroom, the student is able to peacefully remember a story from his grandmother and recite it fluently. The poem suggests that students should be encouraged through positive reinforcement rather than force, as forceful teaching methods stifle creativity and learning.

1. FirstGrade Standing in the Hall
- Cheryl Savageau
This poem tries to show the problem of teaching and the
bad effect of the punishment over the students. It also
shows that forceful teaching is no good because it does
not make the students creative. They cannot create the
new idea if we use the force over them. Here, the teacher
uses force and make the student stand up in the class. The
student feels very hopeless and afraid from the teacher.
He cannot answer the question asked by the teacher. Only
the letters dance around him and he cannot say anything.
But later when he was taken to the office, he feels very
peaceful and his history came to him without any
hesitation. Therefore this poem suggest that we should not
use force over the students. Forceful teaching cannot
make them creative they should encouraged from their
impulse. In this way, this poem deals with the problem of
teaching method and the encouragement to the student.
The student was very young and he was in the first grade.
He did not know anything how to read and write. But the
teacher ordered him to stand up in the class and tell the
story from the book. But the student felt very hopeless
and afraid. He could not read anything. Only the later
moved around him and he saw their shapes. He had
known that the book have stories. But he could not find
the story in his book. He remembers the beautiful stories
that his grandmother told him he could not tell those

2. stories because of the hopelessness. The letters did not
give him any sense because he could not read it. There
was a beautiful story on the book in front of him. But the
letters did not tell the story. He was so much hopeless that
he felt himself stupid. He was still standing in the hall
among many students. After sometime the bell rang and
teacher took him to the office. There was nobody to the
office. Slowly, he stopped crying and he felt peaceful.
When there was peaceful, He started to remember a
beautiful story. Everything came very clearly in his mind.
Slowly he begins to sing with the beautiful story that the
teacher could not stop him. In this way his story came to
his mind so fluently that his teacher could not stop him.
Therefore, this shows that forceful teaching is not
effective but the student should be encouraged from their
internal impulse.