The Fun They Had Video

Video Transcript:

Published in 1951, “The Fun They Had” is a short story penned by the prolific science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Set in the future, the story centers on two children who live in a world of robotic teachers and computerized homeschooling. Written as a favor to a friend for publication in a children’s magazine, “The Fun They Had” was later described by Asimov as “the biggest surprise of his literary career,” since it was reprinted over thirty times.

The story opens on Margie Jones, an 11-year-old girl living in the year 2155. “Today,” she writes in her diary one night, “Tommy found a real book!”

From there, we jump back to earlier in the day, when Margie and her 13-year-old friend, Tommy, examine an old book, marveling at the way the words stand still instead of moving. This is the first printed book the two children have ever seen, as Margie and Tommy live in a world where books are played on television and called “telebooks.” Tommy remarks that “real books” must have been a waste, since presumably they are meant to be thrown out after one has finished reading.

Margie asks Tommy what the book is about, to which he replies “school.” Margie cannot understand why anyone would want to write a book about school, as she has been struggling with her own schooling lately. In fact, Margie had been scoring so poorly on her geography tests that her mother was forced to call the County Inspector in for a visit. He arrived with a set of tools, handed Margie an apple, and began to “take the teacher apart.”

We learn through narration that Margie’s teacher is a robot who teaches her from the comfort of her own home. As the County Inspector worked on the machine, Margie hoped that there would be something seriously wrong with it so that they would take it away for repairs, like they had once done with Tommy’s teacher.

To Margie’s disappointment, the inspector fixed the problem within an hour. He told her mother that it wasn’t Margie’s fault at all, since the geography sector was “geared a little too quick” for her age. These robotic teachers, we learn, are each programmed to suit a child’s individual way of learning.

Returning to her conversation with Tommy, Margie asks why anyone would want to write a book about school. Tommy replies that the book isn’t about “school” as they know it, but about schools that existed “centuries ago.” Margie is unfamiliar with these kinds of schools, prompting Tommy to call her “stupid.”

Hurt, Margie asks how these schools were different from the way they learn now. Tommy explains that teachers were actual men, which Margie balks at once again. She doesn’t believe that men could be smart enough to be teachers. Moreover, she argues that she would not want a strange man in her house to teach her.

At this, Tommy screams with laughter, explaining that these schools were actual buildings where children would go each day to learn the same thing. Margie is shocked to hear of a world in which learning is not tailored to individual children. Tommy shrugs, saying that she doesn’t have to read about this form of schooling if she doesn’t like it. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” she says, admitting to herself that she wants to learn more about these “funny schools.”

Just then, Margie’s mother calls her away for her schooling. Tommy, heading home for his own lessons, takes the book with him. On his way out, Margie asks if she can look at the book with him again after school, but Tommy just shrugs: “maybe.” Frustrated, Margie retreats to her schoolroom, inserting her homework into a slot in her robot teacher.

During her lesson, Margie cannot help but daydream about the old schools Tommy described. She pictures children laughing together in the schoolyard and helping each other with their homework, a relic of an era in which all children learned the same things. “Margie was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days,” the narration reads. “She was thinking about the fun they had.”