Margie even wrote about it that night in her diary. On the page headed May 17, 2157, she wrote, "Today Tommy found a real book!"
It was a very old book, covered in dust. Margie's grandfather once said that long ago all stories were printed on paper. They turned the pages, which were yellow and dry.
"What's it about?" asked Margie.
"School."
"School? What's there to write about school? I hate school."
Margie hated school now more than ever. The electric teacher had been giving her drill after drill in geography and she had been doing worse and worse until her mother had finally sent for someone to fix the teacher.
The man came with a whole box of tools. He smiled at Margie, turned off the electricity, and started to repair the teacher, which was large and black and altogether ugly. There was a monitor that showed questions, and a hole where she had to put compositions and test papers. The electric teacher marked the papers in no time.
She said to Tommy, "Why would anyone write about school?"
"Because it's not our kind of school. This is the kind of school that they had hundreds of years ago." "Centuries ago," he added, pronouncing the word "centuries" proudly and carefully.
Margie was hurt. She read the book for a while, then said, "Anyway, they had a teacher."
"Surely they had a teacher, but it wasn't a regular teacher. It was a man."
"A man? How could a man be a teacher?"
"Well, he just told the kids things and gave them homework."
"A man isn't smart enough."
"Sure he is. My father knows as much as my teacher."
Margie wasn't prepared to argue. She said, "I wouldn't want a strange man in my house to teach me."
Tommy screamed with laughter. "The teachers didn't live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there."
"And all the kids learned the same thing?"
"Surely, if they were the same age."
"But my mother says a teacher has to fit the mind of each boy or girl it teaches, and each kid has to be taught in a different way."
They weren't even half-finished when Margie's mother called, "Margie! School!"
Margie went into the room that was the school. It was right next to her bedroom, and the electric teacher was waiting for her. It was the same every day except Saturday and Sunday.
The monitor lit up, and it said: "Please put yesterday's homework in the proper hole."
Margie sighed and threw a dirty sock at the machine. She was thinking about the old days. All the kids from the whole neighborhood came to the school, laughing and shouting in the yard outside. They could even help one another with the homework.
And the teachers were people.
Margie was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days. She was thinking about the fun they had.
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The Fun They Had in School 课文讲解
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