The Fun They Had Summary Class 9 English
“The Fun They Had” is the first chapter of the Class 9 English textbook - Beehive. It is a story about how computers play an important role and dominate humans in the future. How traditional schools will be replaced by virtual schools and robotic teachers. How do future students see traditional school? Do they like virtual classes? Here is the prose summary of “The Fun They Had”.
Summary of the Story “The Fun They Had”
Isaac Asimov is the author of the story "The Fun They Had", who visualizes his views on the future. The story takes place in the future where books and schools are digitally conducted through virtual classrooms. These classes are taken by a mechanic (robotic) teacher instead of a human class teacher. The story starts with two Children- Margie and Tommy. They are living in the world of the future where computers control everything. With the advent of virtual schools, the concept of books and classrooms has undergone a considerable transformation from the old days.
On May 17, 2157, Margie wrote in her diary about how Tommy came up with a real book. It is an old book that consists of stories. Margie remembers her grandfather, who once told that when he was younger, his grandfather used to study through printed books. Tommy and Margie were excited and started to turn the yellow crumpled pages of the book to learn more about the ancient days. They found it hilarious to read the book as the words stood at a place instead of moving around as they saw it on a computer screen. From here, it is clear that in the future there will be only telebooks and that no paper copies of the books will be available. Tommy proclaims that it is absolutely useless to read a book and throw it away once completed. He feels that their monitor screen has millions of books and can store even more without throwing after use.
Soon after they started reading about school in the ancient days, they found that the teachers were actual human beings rather than mechanical (robotic) teachers. Though Margie hated the concept of schools, she was surprised about the human teachers at the school. Margie and Tommy don't even know about physical schools, as they both study in a virtual classroom that is filled with electronic gadgets, robots, etc. They study their lessons through computer screens that teach them all the subjects like Maths, Science, etc. Margie remembers that Margie's mother once called a County Inspector to fix the mechanical device on which Margie attends the virtual classes. He fixed the big black screen together again on which all the lessons were displayed and questions were asked. But the little girl was so disappointed as the device got fixed sooner. She needs to put the homework and test papers through a punch code.
As they both continue to read the book, Margie’s mother calls her to attend the classes. Margie attends her class on fractions, taught by the mechanical teacher. But, her mind starts wondering about the fun their grandparents had while attending school in the olden days. In the olden days, the school used to be a special place where all the students of dame age studied together. She started to imagine how the kids from different areas come together and attend the school happily. Thereby, Margie gets strongly attracted to the fun the children had in the ancient time when they went to a real, physical school.
Important Characters
Margie- A 11 year old little girl living in the 22nd century and has a habit of writing diaries. She hates virtual school and her mechanical teacher but is interested in knowing the olden era of school.
Tommy- He is a 13 year old boy and friend of Margie. He likes reading books and brings an old book to Margie’s house.
Mechanical Teacher- A robotic teacher which has black and ugly look. All the lessons and questions are asked by him.
County Inspector- A little man with a red face has a box of tools, dials and wires. He fixes Margie’s television quickly.
FAQs on The Fun They Had Summary
1. What is the difference between past school and future school?
Past school is a special building, where children of the same age gather together and study in the same class. They had human teachers to teach students all the subjects and used physical paper notes and books.
Whereas in future school there is no physical place to learn, where students learn from their respective home. It is a virtual platform and everything is electronic and machine-oriented. The lessons are taught by the mechanical (robotic) teachers and they use punch code to submit homework and test papers.
2. Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old school was fun?
Margie felt that school was not fun, interesting, and lacked life. Where machines do all the regular work without fun and laughter. She hated submitting the homework and test papers into the slot by using punch code. There are no classmates, physical school, and human teachers.
She thought that the children in the olden times had lots of fun as they had the opportunity to go to school with fellow children of the same age. She thought that children studying together and discussing studies and helping each other with the homework could be cool. The human teacher in the past made her feel that the school of the past was fun.
3. Who are the important characters of the story “The Fun They Had”?
Margie - A 11 year old little girl living in the 22nd century and has a habit of writing diaries. She hates virtual school and her mechanical teacher but is interested in knowing the olden era of school.
Tommy - He is a 13 year old boy and friend of Margie. He likes reading books and brings an old book to Margie’s house.
Mechanical Teacher - A robotic teacher which has black and ugly look. All the lessons and questions are asked by him.
County Inspector - A little man with a red face has a box of tools, dials and wires. He fixes Margie’s television quickly.
4. What does Tommy find? What is incredible about it?
In the story “The Fun They Had”, Tommy found an old diary of his grandparent in which he has mentioned his childhood and his school. Margie and Tommy found the description of old school and school life incredible because in the era they live in, they don’t have such kinds of schools. Margie and Tommy attend their classes through virtual school at home on their computer screens, which are taught by robotic teachers. Whereas in the diary, they came to know about physical schools, where all the students gather at a place and had fun. These schools are real and human teachers are used to teach all the things to the students. This is what Tommy and Margie miss in their era and by reading all the experiences, they think about the fun their grandparents had in their era.
5. What is the central theme of the story “The Fun They Had”?
The theme of the story “The Fun They Had” is transformation by technology. The whole story focuses on two eras: One is the Digital Era in which Tommy and Margie live and the other is the Normal Era, about which they learned through their grandparent’s diary. Both the eras are completely different from each other and in the story “The Fun They Had”, the author has compared them. The story gave us the glimpse of our future where everything will be replaced by technology and people won’t be able to go to physical schools as we do now because in the future, there will be an only virtual classroom where robots will teach everything and people will not have many friends as everything will be done on computers.
6. What is the Theme of the Story “The Fun They Had”?
The theme of the story “The Fun They Had” is transformation by technology. The whole story focuses on two eras: One is Digital Era in which Tommy and Margie live and the other is the Normal Era, about which they learned through their grandparent’s diary. Both the eras are completely different from each other and in the story “The Fun They Had”, the author has compared them. The story gave us the glimpse of our future where everything will be replaced by technology and people won’t be able to go to physical schools as we do now because in future, there will be an only virtual classroom where robots will teach everything and people will not have many friends as everything will be done on computers.
7. What was found by Tommy and what was incredible about that Thing?
In the story “The Fun They Had”, Tommy found the old diary of his grandparent in which he has mentioned about his childhood and his school. Margie and Tommy found the description of old school and school life incredible because in the era they live, they don’t have such kind of schools. Margie and Tommy go to the virtual school every day on their computer screen, which is next to their bedrooms and there they are taught by robots. While in Diary, they learn about physical schools, where all the students meet their friends daily. These schools were comprised of real buildings and human teachers used to teach all the things to the students. This is what Tommy and Margie miss in their era and by reading all the experience, they think about the fun their grandparents had in their era.