The Fun They Had

 About the Author

Isaac Asimov

An american author and professor of bio-chemistry at Boston University,Isaac Asimov was best known for his works of science and his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, letters who had written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and post cards. Asimov is widely considered a master of arduous science fiction. He wrote hundreds of shorts stories, including the social fiction "Nightfall" which in 1964 was voted by science fiction writers of America as the best short science story of all time.

Before you Read

The story we shall read is set in the future, when books and schools as we now know them will perhaps not exist. How will children study then? The diagram below may give you some ideas.

In pairs, discuss three things that you like best about your school and three things about your school that you would like to change. Write them down.

Have you ever read words on a television (or computer) screen? Can you imagine a time when all books will be on computers, and there will be no books printed on paper? Would you like such books better

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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!"

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 when they read it the first time.

2. "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 through 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?"

"I many house." He pointed without looking, because he was busy reading. "In the attic."

"What's it about?"

"School."

3. 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 Country Inspector. 

4. 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 pinch code they made her learn when she was six years old, and the mechanical teacher calculated the marks is no time.

5. 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 the patted Margie's head again. 

Margie's 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?"

6. Tommy looked at her with very superior eyes.