2nd PUC English: On Children | Summary and Solved Questions

On Children | Summary and Solved Questions:

2nd PUC English Solved Questions/Model Questions and Answers (Q&A) on the Chapter: On Children for the 2nd PUC students have been updated in this post below. The students of the 12th Class can make use of this Online Study Package to get good scores in the 2nd PUC examinations.

Lecturers can also help the students to access this platform to use this FREE Online Study Package anywhere and any time.

On Children - Summary

BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

The first line suggests a basic response in most of us parents, who feel a biological, emotional, and spiritual instinct to care for our children. We chose to have them. We are carefully raising them, teaching them, loving them.

They do not “belong to” us. We don’t own them. We may have chosen (or not) to consider them, but we didn’t choose who they are. We are the means by which they came into the world, but we did not design them. A force greater than ourselves — God, nature, “Life’s longing for itself,” whatever you want to call it — is responsible for that.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

Not only are my kids not mine, but also, let’s think about our own mortality. Ouch, again. Seriously, though, this is so true. Kids come with their own unique identity, and their own unique part to play in this world. We can’t imagine what likely lies within them, and we certainly can’t imagine what their world will be like in the future.

We can care for them and offer them what we can, but we can’t make them think like us or believe like us. And we shouldn’t want to because they will need different thoughts and beliefs to navigate a world we can’t foresee. They are living in their own time, just as we are. And they were created for their time, not ours.

You may strive to be like them

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

Parents understand this concept of time better than anybody. There’s no finishing time, and there’s certainly no reversing it, no matter how much we might wish to do so. Time marches forward, and we all move forward with it.

It’s so tempting to want to make our mark on — or through — our children, but they have their lives, and we have ours. They have their own destinies to fulfil, and we have ours. Our destinies are interwoven, but they are not the same.

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might

that His arrows may go swift and far.

I feel this bending now, as my oldest prepares to make her way out from under my wing. Perhaps this is why parents say parenting doesn’t get easier. The closer we are to sending our children out into the world, the further we have to bend. We get stretched to our limit, and before we know it, they are off. But the bending and stretching are painful. I love this analogy illustrating that this pain has a purpose.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

What a lovely reminder to find joy through the pain, because we and our children are loved by the Heavenly. And to be strong, because our firmness will help our children to fly.

Our children. Our children are unique, individual human beings, with whom we are only together for a spell. Our children will help move the wheel of humanity a few feet farther than we’ll be able to see. Our children who have their own destiny and their own purpose separate and apart from our own.

Our children are not really our children at all.

Questions and Answers

I. Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each.

Answer: Desires and thoughts.

Answer: (b) thoughts

Answer: The parents cannot visit Tomorrow.

Answer: Swift and far

Answer: God the archer.

Answer: Gladness.

Answer: Life always goes forward and never backwards.

Answer: Children.

Answer: ‘Bows’ are the parents and ‘Arrows’ are the children.

Answer: Parents.

Answer: Their thoughts.

Answer: Mother Earth.

Answer: The love of the parents.

Answer: (a) The archer.

Answer: Children.

Answer: Parents.

$ads={2}

II. Answer the following questions in a paragraph of 80 – 100 words each.

Answer: The Poem highlighting that parents do not own their children and they cannot control the desires and thoughts of the children. The poet feels that children should be freely and lovingly allowed to grow into independent individuals. Children too have their minds and their own thoughts. Parents are the” bows” and the children are the” arrows”. Our Creator God uses the stable bow to send the arrows to a certain place. In other words, parents need to be good stable role models for their children. Thus, the poet wants parents to guide their children through love and not control them or their thoughts.

Answer: The poet stresses that the children are the continuation of life on earth, and should be freely and lovingly allowed to grow into their individuality. The parents should love their children without binding them with their own thoughts. Children have their own set of thoughts. It is true that parents protect the children’s physical bodies but they can never bind their souls which live in the house of tomorrow. The parents’ love could make them like their children but should not make their children become like themselves because every child has his own inner personality. Thus, through this poem, Khalil Gibran conveys that children should be given love, care and affection but thoughts should not be imposed upon them.

Answer: God is the Archer, parents are the bows and Children are the arrows. The Archer wants His living arrows to reach the target. He decides the target for His arrows by using the parents as bows to shoot the arrows. If parents give their love and not their thoughts, the living arrows will reach the target as per the Divine plan. God, the Supreme Power, uses parents as a vehicle to bring children to this earth. Children have their own thoughts and souls. Therefore, parents cannot possess them as puppets.

Answer: The poet feels that children should be allowed to freely and lovingly grow into independent individuals. Children too have their minds and their own thoughts. Parents are the ‘bows’ and the children are the ‘arrows’. Our Creator, God uses the stable bow to send the arrows to a certain place. In other words, parents need to be good stable role models for their children. Thus, the poet emphasizes that parents should guide their children through love and not control~ them or their thoughts.

Answer: God is their Creator and the parents are the instruments who continue creation on the earth. The poet asks the parents to give the children their love and affection but not their thoughts. They should be allowed freely and lovingly to grow into individuals. Children belong to the future and they are independent personalities. The poet compares the parents to bows and children to arrows and God, the Archer. God uses bows-parents--to bring children-arrows into the world. Parents should be gentle role models and guide the children and not force them into doing something.

Answer: The poem "On Children" does not focus merely on the lives of children but also talks about the responsibility of parents. In the first part Gibran argues that children take birth as life’s longing for itself. Since we do not create children, we cannot possess them. However, Gibran argues that parents do have a role in the life of children. He says that we should give our children as much love as we can but never our thoughts. The children must be let free to think for themselves, and parents must not aim their ideas on them. Next, Gibran talks about the responsibility of parents. He states that God is the archer, and parents are his bows. The archer decides on the target, bends the bow to suit his target and shoots the arrows. The arrows are the children. Thus the archer wants the parents to serve as his instrument. If the bow remains rigid and inflexible, the arrows may not reach the desired destination. Therefore, as parents, it is our responsibility to be flexible enough to allow our children to live their own lives.

Answer: Gibran assumes Almustafa and speaks to the people with the intention of enlightening them about ‘children and to guide them as to how they should bring up their children.

1. ‘Children’ are born to fulfil the ‘longing’ of life itself. They are a gift from the richness of existence. God, the supreme power, uses parents as a vehicle or passage to bring children to this earth. Since parents do not create ‘life', parents do not own children. They may house. their bodies but not their souls.

2. ‘Children’ have their own souls and are not nonliving things. Therefore, parents cannot possess them as puppets. Life’s longing for itself brings forth children in the form of sons and daughters. Hence, our sons and daughters do not belong to us though we have accepted them.

3. Parents bring children to this earth, they should also take care of children as stewards’ and protect them, take care of their needs until they grow and mature and become fully developed individuals. Parents should take care of their needs only and should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them.

Answer: According to the Prophet, a child is a gift from the abundance of existence and it is eternal life itself. Children are born as sons and daughters as ‘life’s longing for itself. Parents do not create them and hence cannot possess them. Parents serve as a ‘passage' or vehicle to bring the children to this world. Further, children have their own thoughts because they have the free will to do as they please. Whereas parents belong to yesterdays, their children belong to the future. The children Will have their own scriptures and saints; hence parents should only give them as much love as they can and not their thoughts. Parents should not push their past as a tradition on their children but should let them grow according to their own potential.