The Fun They Had Summary & Analysis

On the page dated May 17, 2157, Margie writes excitedly in her journal about an amazing discovery: “Today Tommy found a real book!” The book is exceptionally old—Margie remembers her grandfather telling her once about how his grandfather used to tell him about a time long, long ago when stories were printed on paper with ink. Margie and Tommy flip through the book, fascinated by the “yellow and crinkly” pages. The children can’t believe that the words don’t move like they do on a computer screen.

It’s especially bewildering to Tommy and Margie that when they turn to back to a page that they’ve already read, it still has the same words on it as when the children read it the first time. Tommy believes that the book is “a waste,” and that people must have thrown the books away after reading them. Tommy marvels at the fact that his television at home has at least a million books on it—“and it’s good for plenty more”—and he would never dream of throwing it away. Margie echoes in agreement. She’s 11 and hasn’t seen as many “telebooks” as 13-year-old Tommy.

Margie asks Tommy where he found the book. Engrossed in his reading, Tommy points to his house without looking up, and tells Margie that he found the book in the attic. Margie asks him what the book is about, and Tommy answers tersely: “School.”

At first, Margie can’t imagine anyone wanting to write a book about school because she hates it so much. A while back, her mechanical teacher was constantly testing her in geography, but Margie just kept doing worse and worse. Upset by her daughter’s poor performance, Margie’s mother finally called for the County Inspector, a mechanic, who came to fix the mechanical teacher. The County Inspector was a small, plump man with a red face and a toolbox filled with dials and wires. When he came to fix Margie’s mechanical teacher, he smiled pleasantly at Margie and gave her an apple before taking her mechanical teacher apart.

At the time, Margie had hoped that the County Inspector wouldn’t be able to put her mechanical teacher back together again; however, after an hour, Margie was once again faced with her teacher’s large, black, and ugly screen where it displays lessons and questions. What Margie hates more than anything is filling out her homework in punch code and having to put her homework and tests into the slot that allows her teacher to grade all her work instantly.

When he was done fixing the mechanical teacher, the County Inspector smiled at Margie again and patted her on the head. Understanding Margie’s trouble with the lessons, the County Inspector told Margie’s mother, Mrs. Jones, that wasn’t Margie’s fault that she was doing so poorly, and that the geography lessons were geared a little too fast for Margie. The Inspector changed the lessons to a 10-year-old level and told Mrs. Jones that Margie’s overall work was satisfactory. He patted Margie’s head one more time before leaving. Margie was extremely disappointed—she was hoping that the County Inspector would take her teacher away altogether, just like they had taken Tommy’s teacher for almost a month when its “history sector had blanked out completely.”

Margie asks Tommy why anyone would want to write about school. Tommy calls Margie stupid and arrogantly explains that it’s a different kind of school: “the old kind of school that they had hundreds and hundreds of years ago.” Margie’s feelings are hurt, and she admits that she doesn’t know what kind of school existed so long ago. Reading the book over Tommy’s shoulder, Margie says that the only thing she knows about school in the old days is that they also had a teacher. Tommy explains to her that of course they had a teacher, but that it wasn’t a “regular teacher,” but a man.

Margie is baffled and doesn’t understand how a man could be a teacher, believing that a man could never be smart enough. Tommy insists that his father knows nearly as much as his teacher. Margie doesn’t want to argue, but she also doesn’t comprehend why anyone would let a strange man come to their house and teach. Tommy shrieks with laughter, mocking Margie for how little she knows. He explains that the teachers didn’t live in the house, but rather all students went to a “special building” with all the kids from the neighborhood.

Tommy explains that students in the old days learned the same things if they were the same age. Margie finds this confusing because her mother always tells her that “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.” Annoyed, Tommy snaps at Margie that schools didn’t work that way back then, and if she doesn’t like it, she doesn’t have to keep reading the book. Margie quickly replies that she never said that she didn’t like it—she wants to keep reading about the strange schools.

Before Tommy and Margie are even halfway through the book, Mrs. Jones calls her daughter inside for school. Margie doesn’t want to go to school, but her mother insists that it’s time for Margie and probably for Tommy too. Margie eagerly asks Tommy if she can read more of the book with him after school. He replies, “Maybe,” and he walks away with the old book beneath his arm.

Margie goes into her schoolroom, which is right next to her bedroom. The mechanical teacher is already waiting for her—Margie has school at the same time every day, apart from Saturday and Sunday, because Mrs. Jones believes that “little girls [learn] better if they [learn] at regular hours.” The mechanical teacher lights up and begins a lesson on fractions, asking Margie to first insert yesterday’s homework into the slot.

Sighing, Margie puts her homework in, but she isn’t thinking about fractions at all. She’s too busy imagining the old schools from the book, wondering what it would have been like to attend school back when her grandfather’s grandfather was a small boy. She daydreams of all the kids from the entire neighborhood going to school together, working together, and playing and laughing together during recess. She longs for the ancient schools where the teachers were real people and all students learned the same thing and helped each other with their homework.

Meanwhile, the mechanical teacher drones on about fractions, but Margie still isn’t paying attention—she is too busy “thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days. She [is] thinking about the fun they had.”