2.

How could the concept of “learning” be explored in ‘A Leisure

Centre is Also a Temple of Learning’?

Title - Leisure centre is directly interpreted as a temple. A temple is the

place of worship of the deities. Worshiping the heavenly gods also
means to learn a moral from them (peace and beauty of life).

 Beauty – this girl is ‘absorbed in making her body more beautiful’, the
media portray what they believe beauty is and women feel pressured to fit
into those ideals. This girl buys commercial products such as ‘an aromatic
scrub and a gentle exfoliant’ in an attempt to make herself more beautiful.
The media controls her, and she has become obsessed with trying to achieve
unrealistic beauty ideals. It gives her a lesson that the artificial beauty
is a very short lived desire.

 Youth – this girl is being watched and admired because ‘she is so much
younger than the rest’ of them. The idea is that although she is ‘perfect’ and
youthful now, youth does fade with time and these older women know ‘what
happens next’. I get the impression from the way that all of the women
marvel at her that they are envious of her beauty and youth, they
have grown older and hence lost that girlhood. This can be interpreted as
the older people know that the lose of girlhood as she grows up is going to
be a great lesson to her.

 The chorus predicts the lesson they learnt, is same for every girl. The
artificial beauty is a very short lived desire, which is craze only until she
meets her partner. And that all of these are only to impress her partner.
They are going to hide her original self. Her originality will be soon known by
her partner.
 Sexualisation – the girl in this poem is referred to as ‘perfect’ with her
‘cleft’ showing similarities to a ‘charlatans moustache’, a ‘charlatan’ is a
fraud/scammer. This highlights that although the girls beauty makes her
seem as if she is sexually experienced, in reality that is a scam and mask
that she shows to the world. Her cleft is ‘secret’ and all she wants is to be
loved and embraced in a romantic rather than sexual way,
with the imagery of the ‘little kisspoints below her ears’ being appreciated,
thus showing the love and romance that she desires. She will recall the
same when she gets older. She might feel regretful of losing her beauty
mostly due to the chemicals and ageing. These extra makeup can no more
suit her, because it cant hide her inner self. Also she might learn how life
takes no time to change and nothing last longer.

 This can also be interpreted as a – all women have the will to be perfect as
the girl. The chorus ladies are trying to learn, explore and worship her
beauty of the girl. They can see the future. Which means they have already
came past those experiences. These experiences might include sexual
process, spending more time in front of the mirror. And these experiences
contribute to Learning.
 Lesson of giving up jealousy – the older woman must leave their
jealousy as they know that there comes a day when she will loose her
girlhood. It gives them a lesson to encourage her desire rather than secretly
watching and feeling jealous.
 The reader also interprests that its wrong for the older woman to leave girl
alone, rather than rising the girls’ awarness about the future, by sharing
their experiences.
 The poem has lots of learning that a reader predicts, should be known by
the girls and the chorus.