The Fun They Had - Notes

Setting

• Story set in the future where traditional books and schools don't exist.

Characters

• Margie: Eleven years old, dislikes school, particularly geography lessons from her mechanical teacher.

• Tommy: Thirteen years old, finds a real book and is more familiar with telebooks.

Plot Points

• Margie discovers a real book with Tommy, sparking her curiosity about old schools.

• The book describes schools where children learned together in a building with human teachers.

• Margie's mechanical teacher gives her constant geography tests, which she is failing.

• A County Inspector adjusts the teacher, slowing down the geography sector.

• Margie learns about old schools from Tommy and envies the social aspect and human teachers.

Old School vs. Future School

• Old School: Human teachers, physical books, learning together, helping each other with homework.

• Future School: Mechanical teachers, telebooks, individual learning, punch code for homework.

Margie's Feelings

• Hates her school because of constant tests and the mechanical teacher.

• Intrigued and envious of the old schools where kids learned together and had fun.

Key Details

• Margie writes in her diary about Tommy finding a real book on May 17, 2157.

• Mechanical teacher calculates marks instantly.

• Arithmetic lesson on addition of proper fractions: “When we add fractions ½ and ¼”