The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov
Quick answer: The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov, Class 9 Beehive: summary with the ending, Margie and Tommy, the mechanical teacher, themes of technology and school, exam answers.
On 17 May 2157 a girl writes in her diary that Tommy has found a real book, with yellow pages that stay the same each time you read them, and the two children puzzle over what a school full of other children was like. Isaac Asimov wrote The Fun They Had in 1951; it opens the Class 9 Beehive textbook.
The story in brief
Margie is eleven, Tommy thirteen, and both learn at home from mechanical teachers, black screens that set lessons and take homework through a slot. Margie hates school because her teacher's geography sector keeps failing her; the County Inspector finds it geared too fast and slows it down.
From Tommy's book she learns that centuries ago children walked to a schoolhouse together, learned the same things at the same age, and were taught by a man. She cannot imagine a person knowing enough. Called to her lessons, she sits as the mechanical teacher begins fractions and thinks of the old schoolyard, children laughing and helping each other, and all the fun they had.
The characters
Themes and meaning
The exam readings are education and technology, the loneliness of learning alone, and nostalgia for shared childhood. The sharper observation is that Asimov attacks nothing. The Inspector is kind, the teacher efficient, the mother sensible. What is missing is other children, and the title gives the fun to them, the long dead, and not to her.
The craft
The turn sits in the book's line that the teacher was a man; after it Margie must imagine human teaching, and her imagining becomes the ending. Asimov reports the future as ordinary so the printed book is the strange object. Whatever your characters marvel at tells the reader what they lack, and a story centred on what a child cannot picture would score well for Character in Writory's five-part rubric.
For the exam
Summary in 100 words: In the year 2157, eleven-year-old Margie and thirteen-year-old Tommy find a printed book about schools of the past. They are used to telebooks and mechanical teachers that deliver lessons and grade homework at home. Margie dislikes her teacher because its geography sector has been failing her; the County Inspector repairs it. From the book they learn that children once gathered in a school building, learned together and were taught by a human teacher. Margie cannot picture a man knowing so much. Called to her lessons, she sits before the mechanical teacher thinking longingly of the fun those old children had together.
What writers can take from this
- Give the date and the ages; examiners like precision in a story built on a future setting.
- Answer the technology question in both directions: the mechanical teacher is efficient and adjustable, and the child is still lonely.
- Use the title in your theme answer, since it names who had the fun.
- Writers: make the ordinary object the marvel, and the reader will infer the whole world from it.
- End on a character's thought rather than an event when the story's subject is a feeling.
Try it yourself
Write a story set a century from now in which two children find an everyday object from our present and misunderstand it in a way that reveals exactly what their world has lost.
Questions
What is the theme of The Fun They Had?
The story contrasts solitary, mechanised education with the shared schooling of the past and suggests that companionship and human teaching matter to children as much as efficient lessons.
Why did the County Inspector visit Margie's house?
Margie's mechanical teacher had been giving her failing marks in geography. The Inspector found that the geography sector was geared too fast, slowed it to a ten-year level and told her mother her progress was satisfactory.
How does The Fun They Had end?
Margie sits before her mechanical teacher as it begins a lesson on fractions, thinking about the old schools where children learned together, and about the fun they must have had.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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