the fun they had
Margie kept a diary .One day she wrote,“17 May,2155”and then this sentence:“Today Tommy found a real book.”
It was a very old book.Its pages were yellow.Margie suddenly remembered that her grandfather once said that centuries ago all stories were printed on paper.This must be a book of that time.
Tommy and Margie were anxious to read the book.They turned the pages.It was very funny.The words stood still,and didn’t move as they did on a TV.And then,when they turned back,the same words were there!
“Oh,” said Tommy,“What a waste!When you finish reading the book,you just throw it away.You can have a million books on our television,and even more.There is nothing to throw away.”
Tommy and Margie were both thirteen.They had read a lot.When-ever they wanted to read,the books appeared on the TV.They had never turned a page like they were doing now.
“What’s it about?” Margie asked.
“School.”
Margie didn’t like the idea.“School?All those lessons:chemistry,physics,arithmetic!What can be interesting about school?” she hated school.Her school was a room next to her bedroom.There was a machine with a big TV set on it.The big TV showed her lessons,asked her questions and gave her exercises and examination papers.“Why did they write about school?”
“It’s not our kind of school.” Tommy answered.“This is the old kind of school hundreds of years ago.They had teachers.All were people.”
“Really?How could that be?And I don’t think it’s pleasant to have a stranger in my house to teach me.”
Tommy laughed.“you don’t know much,Margie.The teachers didn’t live in the house.They had a special building and all the pupils went there.”
“And all the pupils learned the same thing?”
“Of course,if they were the same age,the books says.”
At that moment,the machine in the next room called,“Margie!School!”
Margie went into her schoolroom.The TV was on and waiting for her.It was always on at the same time every day except Saturday and Sunday.
The TV announced,“Today’s arithmetic lesson…”
Margie looked at the TV.But she was thinking about the old school.All the pupils from the neighborhood came.They laughed,and shouted when they played ball games in the schoolyard or at the stadium.They sat together in the classroom,went home together at the end of the day.They learned the same things,so they could help on another with their homework and talk about it.And the teachers were people… Oh,what fun they had!