1.

Chapter- Fun They Had, Textbook- Beehive

School can be so boring!

“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”

Ma
rgie was scornful.

“School? What’s there to write about school? I hate school.””

Q- Is this true for you too? How do you feel about school? Narrate a
happy memory related to school from your past.

1) School in 20-50 years

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learning-27e82830c136
 2) About the author of The Fun They Had – Isaac Asimov

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Our lives completely changed after the pandemic and we had never imagined
nor expected that the world would come to this, where we would be locked down
and all activity would reduce.
So, look around you and look back to the year 2019 and tell me what changes
have you witnessed since then?

Note your views on ‘Education in 2020/21 vs education Pre-covid’ using sticky

notes in Lucidapp in Microsoft Teams channel ‘The Fun They Had’.

The Fun They Had by saac Asimov

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.

crinkly: with many folds or lines, something that is crushed.

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.”

attic: a space just below the roof, used as a storeroom

8. “What’s it about?”

9. “School.”

10. Margie was scornful. “School ? What’s there to write about school? I hate
school.”

scornful: contemptuous; showing you think something is worthless, show your

dislike for something

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 county 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.
geared (to): adjusted to a particular standard or level

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.

blanked out: it has been erased

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.”

loftily: in a superior way

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.”

regular: here, normal; of the usual kind

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.”

“Sure he is. My father knows as much as my teacher.”

“He knows almost as much, I betcha.”

betcha(informal): (I) bet you (in fast speech): I'm sure

23. Margie wasn’t prepared to dispute that. She said, “I wouldn’t want a stranger
in my house to teach me.”

dispute: disagree with when you are opposing something,

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.

nonchalantly: not showing much interest or enthusiasm; carelessly

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 flashing 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.

LET’S DISCUSS
WHEN YOU ARE READING AND THE CHARACTER SUDDENLY REALISES/
UNDERSTANDS OR FIGURES SOMETHING THAT HE/SHE HAD NOT KNOWN
EARLIER, YOU SHOULD ASK YOURSELF: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? HOW WILL THIS
CHANGE THINGS?

KNOW THAT WHEN THE CHARACTER FIGURES OUT A LIFE LESSON /SOMETHING
HE HAD NOT KNOWN BEFORE IT IS PROBABLY THE THEME OF THE STORY.

Find the AHA MOMENT in the story.

Discuss the following :

 the impact on education in a wholly computerised world sans

social/human interactions
 Impact of lively school atmosphere in the present time.

1) This story is set in future when books and schools as we have now perhaps
will not exist. Two students of that period about 150 years advance from
today find a printed book. They are surprised. They talk about the schools
and books of the old period.

They compare those schools with those of their own which are situated in
their homes and have mechanical teachers to teach them. They find their
own schools dull and boring.

They think that it was great fun to study in the schools of old times when
all the kids of the area went there to learn the same thing by a human
teacher.

What are the benefits of having social interaction? What

 conclusions do you draw about schooling on a computer?

(Moral/ Message of the lesson : Warnings against the dangers of

computerized home schooling which keeps away the children from the
benefits of the personal interactions between students and teachers, which
help them develop social skills as well as many more things. So, we should
understand the value of the present lively education system and enjoy it to
the fullest. )

Summary in the PPT to undertand how to write long answers.

Plot Summary : The story “The Fun They Had” by Isaac Asimov is about the year
2157 when every child has his own mechinical teacher and schools like today do
not exist anymore. Asimov wrote this story in 1951 for a syndicated newspaper
page. Later “The Fun They Had” was published in “Fantasy and Science Fiction”
magazine.

In the year 2157, the thirteen-year-old Tommy finds an old book. They find it
strange that the words on paper do not move after having been read. The book
that they find is about school centuries ago. Margie is very surprised that in the
past pupils had a human as a teacher and that all children of the same age learnt
the same thing and went to a school with other children. Margie wants to read
more of the book but first she has to learn with her machine teacher whose level
is too advanced for her and she thinks school in those days was much better than
the present.

Let’s apply our understanding of the characters, the story to write a long answer
on plot/ theme / central Idea of the lesson.

1.Practice writing the significance of the title in your norebooks using the
following cues. Your answer should be paragraphed and within 100-120 words.

You will be assessed on your content, grammatical accuracy, and expression.

Para , state your view – ‘what’ –

Eg: This is absolutely an appropriate title …

Para 2, elaborate and defend- ‘because’-

Eg: Schooling must have been a fun to them because……

Para 3, conclude/’hence’ –

……………………………………………. …………………………………………. . The title also

states the same.
2. Do the questions highlighted in the PPT in your notebooks.

Do the following

1. Compare and contrast the schools of today with the school in the short story.
Depict the two different systems of education using a Venn diagram using the
free app Lucidchart

2. Do you agree that schools today are better than the schools in the story ‘The
Fun They Had’. Write in your notebook in not more than 120 words giving reasons
for your choice.

3. What is the theme of the chapter? Write in 30-40 words.