Learning objectives
1. To know about the two kinds of schools.
2. To learn more about virtual classroom.
3. To enhance vocabulary.
4. To develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
The background of the story is set in the future. In the year 2157 a thirteen year old boy Tommy finds an old book. He and Margie, who is eleven find it strange that the words on paper do not move after having been read..
Nowadays they only read stories on the computer screen. The book is about school centuries ago. Margie is very surprised that in the past students had a person as a teacher and that all children of the same age learned the same thing and went to school and back home with other children.
Margie wants to read more of the book but first she has to learn with her mechanical teacher whose level is too advanced for her and she thinks school in those days was much better than today.
Issac Asimov 1920-1992
Issac Asimov is an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. He is known for his science fiction.
THEME
In distant future, children would have lessons with mechanical teachers at home, and such a practice might deprive kids of the great fun the old school offered.
"The Fun They Had" is a science fiction which first appeared in a children's newspaper on 1 December 1951.
Science fiction means books, films or cartoons based on imagined future.
virtual
classroom
Traditional
classroom
Features of Virtual classroom
1. Classroom is a small room next to their bedroom fixed with electronic gadgets.
2. They have a mechanical teacher which is a huge television screen.
3. The lessons will be displayed on the screen.
4. Homework is kept in a slot in the computer.
5. Homework is done using a punch code which they were taught when they were six years old.
6. There is no fun as there are no classmates.
7. Homeworks and assignments are checked by the teacher within no time.
Features of Traditional classroom
1. separate building -school
2. students of same age sit in the same class and learn the same thing.
3. They have a human teacher to teach them.
4. Teacher will teach them and clear their doubts.
5.students come to school together and go home together.
6. students can help each other in doing homework.
7. Students have a lot of fun together in the class and outside.
8. They play together in the playground.
Margie wrote in her diary that Tommy had found a real book (printed book)
crinkly - wrinkled, with many folds and lines
They turned the pages which were yellow and crinkly.
It was awfully funny to read words that stood still.
The words on their computer screen keep moving.
Margie and Tommy study in a virtual classroom. They have a mechanical teacher. They are not familiar with the printed books
They have tele books or e-books which are displayed on the screen. So they are surprised to see the printed book.
.
Attic - a space or room inside the roof of a building.
A space below the roof used as a store room
Margie hated school but now she started hating it more than ever. Her teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse.
scornful - show or express disrespect
Margie's mother was worried about her studies and called the County Inspector to find the fault and rectify it
County Inspector - a person who checks and repairs the mechanical teacher
The County Inspector was a round little man with a red face. He came with a box of tools with dials and wires. He gave her an apple and took the teacher apart.
Margie hoped that he wouldn't know how to put it together again but after an hour he set it right.
The mechanical teacher was a large, black and ugly screen on which all the lessons were shown and the questions were asked
The part Margie hated most was the slot where she had to put homework. She always wrote her homework using a punch code which she was taught when she was six years old and the mechanical teacher calculated the marks in no time.
slot- an opening in a machine to insert something
punch code - holes in the card so that the machine can read the pattern
pat one's head - tap or slap on the head affectionately
The inspector said to Mrs. Jones that it was not the little girl's fault. The geography sector was above her level.
The inspector had adjusted it to an average ten year level. He also told Mrs. Jones that Margie's overall progress is satisfactory
disappointed - sad or displeased
Margie was disappointed. She had been hoping that the inspector would take the mechanical teacher away.
Once Tommy's mechanical teacher was taken away for nearly a month as the history sector had blanked out completely and he did not have classes.
It was the old kind of school which existed hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
They had a human teacher who gave them homework and asked them questions.
New words
1. Pat one's head - tap on the head affectionately
2. Geared - adjusted to a particular level
3. Disappointed - sad/ displeased
4.Blanked out - completely lost
5. Superior - higher in rank or position
6. Loftily - in a proud manner
7. Regular - normal (here mechanical teacher)
A man isn't smart enough.
sure he is. My father knows as much as my teacher
I don't want a strange man in my house to teach me
The teachers did not live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there.
New words
1. betcha - I bet you
2. dispute - argument/ disagree with
3. screamed - cried out in a shrill voice.
And all the kids learnt the same thing?
Sure, if they were of the same age.
But my mother says 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.
Just the same they didn't do it that way then. If you don't like it, you don't have to read the book.
Not yet, Mamma
Now, And it's probably time for Tommy too.
Can I read the book some more with you after the school? Tommy
Margie!School!
Margie want to her classroom which was right next to her bedroom. Her mechanical teacher was waiting for her.
It was always on at the same time everyday except Saturday and Sunday because her mother said little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.
The screen was lit up. Today's arithmetic lesson is on addition of proper fractions. Please insert yesterday's homework in the proper slot.
NEW WORDS
1.nonchalantly -in a casual manner
2. tucked - pushed
3. beneath - below/ under
4.lit up - light up / brighten
5. Sigh - take a deep breath
Margie inserted the homework with a sigh. she was thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather's grandfather was a little boy.
All the kids from the neighbourhood came laughing and shouting in the school yard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day.
They learned the same things, so they could help one another with the homework and talk about it.
The mechanical teacher was flashing on the screen: "When we add fractions 1/2 and 1/4........
Margie was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days.
She was thinking about the fun they had.