Supplementary
The Fun
They Had
Isaac Asimov
Now, share your views about the
changes that you and your classmates expect in your school and classroom in
about 20-50 years.
Read the story to find out how a student like Margie studies in
the year 2157.
1. Margie
even wrote about it that night in her diary. On the page headed 17 May 2157,
she wrote, “Today Tommy found a real book!”
2. It was
a very old book. Margie’s grandfather once said that when he was a little boy
his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on
paper.
3. They
turned the pages, which were yellow and crinkly, and it was awfully funny to read words that
stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to—on a screen, you
know. And then when turned back to the page before, it had the same words on it
that it had when they read it the first time.
4. “Gee!,”
said Tommy, “What a waste. When you’re through with the book, you just throw it
away, I guess. Our television screen must have had a million books on it and
it’s good for plenty more. I wouldn’t throw it away.”
5. “Same
with mine,” said Margie. She was eleven and hadn’t seen as many telebooks as
Tommy had. He was thirteen.
6. She
said, “Where did you find it?”
7. “In my
house”. He pointed without looking, because he was busy reading. “In the attic.”
8. “What’s
it about?”
9. “School.”
10. Margie
was scornful.
“School ? What’s there to write about school? I hate school.”
11. Margie
always hated school, but now she hated it more than ever. The mechanical
teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing
worse and worse until her mother had shaken her head sorrowfully and sent for
the country inspector.
12. He
was a round little man with a red face and a whole box of tools with dials and
wires. He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple, then took the teacher apart.
Margie had hoped he wouldn’t know how to put it together again, but he knew how
all right, and, after an hour or so, there it was again, large and black and
ugly, with a big screen on which all the lessons were shown and the questions
were asked. That wasn’t so bad. The part Margie hated most was the slot where
she had to put homework and test papers. She always had to write them out in a
punch code they made her learn when she was six years old, and the mechanical
teacher calculated the marks in no time.
13. The
inspector had smiled after he was finished and patted Margie’s head. He said to
her mother, “It’s not the little girl’s fault, Mrs. Jones. I think the
geography sector was geared a little too quickly. Those things happen
sometimes. I’ve slowed it up to an average ten year level. Actually, the
overall pattern of her progress is quite satisfactory.” And he patted Margie’s
head again.
14. Margie
was disappointed. She had been hoping they would take the teacher away
altogether. They had once taken Tommy’s teacher away for nearly a month because
the history sector had blanked out completely.
15. So
she said to Tommy, “Why would anyone write about school?”
16. Tommy
looked at her with very superior eyes. “Because it’s not our kind of school,
stupid. This is the old kind of school that they had hundreds and hundreds of
years ago.” He added loftily pronouncing the word carefully,
“Centuries ago.”
17. Margie
was hurt. “Well I don’t know what kind of school they had all that time ago.”
She read the book over his shoulder for a while, then said, “Anyway, they had a
teacher.”
18. “Sure
they had a teacher, but it was not a regular teacher. It was a human.”
19. “A
human? How could a human be a teacher?”
20. “Well,
she told boys and girls things and gave them homework and asked them
questions.”
21. “A
human isn’t smart enough.”
22. “Sure
one is.”
23. Margie
wasn’t prepared to dispute that. She said, “I wouldn’t want a stranger in my
house to teach me.”
24. Tommy
screamed with laughter. “You don’t know much, Margie. The teachers didn’t live
in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there.”
25. “And
all the kids learned the same thing?”
26. “Sure,
if they were the same age.”
27. “But
my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and
girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently.”
28. “Just
the same they didn’t do it that way then. If you don’t like it, you don’t have
to read the book.”
29. “I
didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Margie said quickly. She wanted to read about
those funny schools.
30. They
weren’t even half finished when Margie’s mother called, “Margie! School!”
31. Margie
looked up. “Not yet, Mamma.”
32. “Now!”
said Mrs. Jones. “And it’s probably time for Tommy, too.”
33. Margie
said to Tommy, “Can I read the book some more with you after school?”
34. “Maybe,” he
said nonchalantly. He walked away whistling, the dusty old book
tucked beneath his arm.
35. Margie
went into the schoolroom. It was right next to her bedroom, and the mechanical
teacher was on and waiting for her. It was always on at the same time every day
except Saturday and Sunday, because her mother said little girls learned better
if they learned at regular hours.
36. The
screen was lit up, and it said: “Today’s arithmetic lesson is on the addition
of proper fractions. Please insert yesterday’s homework in the proper slot.”
37. Margie
did so with a sigh. She was thinking about the old schools they had when her
grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighborhood
came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the
schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same
things, so they could help one another with the home work and talk about it.
38. And
the teachers were people…
39. The
mechanical teacher was fl ashing on the screen: “When we add fractions ½ and ¼…
40. Margie
was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days. She was
thinking about the fun they had.
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