The Fun They Had
Isaac Asimov
Margie even wrote about it that night in her
diary. On the page headed May 17, 2157, she wrote, "Today, Tommy found a
real book!"
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.
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
they turned back to the page before, it had the same words on it that it had
had when they read it the first time.
"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."
"Same with mine," said Margie. She
was eleven and hadn't seen as many telebooks as Tommy had. He was thirteen. She
said, "Where did you find it?"
"In my house." He pointed without
looking, because he was busy reading. "In the attic." "What's it
about?" "School."
Margie was scornful. "School? What's there
to write about school? I hate school."
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 County Inspector.
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 mark in
no time.
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
quick. Those things happen sometimes. I've slowed it up to an average ten-year
level. Actually, the over-all pattern of her progress is quite
satisfactory." And he parted Margie's head again.
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.
So she said to Tommy, "Why would anyone
write about school?"
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."
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."
"Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn't a
regular teacher. It was a man." "A man? How could a man be a
teacher?" "Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them
homework and asked them questions." "A man isn't smart enough."
"Sure he is. My father knows as much as my teacher." "He can't.
A man can't know as much as a teacher." "He knows almost as much, I
betcha."
Margie wasn't prepared to dispute that. She
said, "1 wouldn't want a strange man in my house to teach me."
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." "And all the kids learned the
same thing?" "Sure, if they were the same age."
"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."
"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."
"I didn't say I didn't like it,"
Margie said quickly. She wanted to read about those funny schools.
They weren't even half-finished when Margie's
mother called, "Margie! School!" Margie looked up. "Not yet,
Mamma."
"Now!" said Mrs. Jones. "And
it's probably time for Tommy, too."
Margie said to Tommy, "Can I read the book
some more with you after school?"
"Maybe," he said nonchalantly. He
walked away whistling, the dusty old book tucked beneath his arm.
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.
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."
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 on
the homework and talk about it.
And the teachers were people...
The mechanical teacher was flashing on the
screen: "When we add the fractions 1/2 and 1/4..."
Margie was thinking about how the kids must
have loved it in the old days. She was thinking about the fun they had.
Written in 1951 for a syndicated newspaper page,
'The Fun They Had' was later published in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine.
Summary: The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov is a
story where Tommy finds a book and together with Margie, they compare and
contrast their present school with school from the past
Characters:
Margie Jones - 11 year old who's fascinated by the book on school that
was printed on paper
Tommy
- 13 year old who finds the book about the "old kind of school"
County Inspector - evaluates, adjusts and fixes "mechanical
teachers"
Mrs.
Jones - Margie's mother
