Summary of 'The Fun They Had'

The story begins when a 13-year-old boy named Tommy finds a very old, dusty, printed book in his attic. He shows it to his 11-year-old neighbor, Margie. Both children are amazed because in their time (2157), books only exist on television screens (telebooks). They find it funny that the words on the paper stand still instead of moving.

Margie hates 'school'. For her, school is not a building; it is just a room next to her bedroom containing a robotic Mechanical Teacher. Recently, her mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in Geography, and she was failing miserably. Eventually, a County Inspector (a mechanic) arrives, slows down the machine's speed to an average 10-year level, and fixes it.

As Tommy reads the old book, he explains to a disbelieving Margie how schools existed centuries ago. He tells her that in the past, students didn't learn alone at home. Instead, hundreds of kids went to a special building (a school), sat together, learned the exact same things, and were taught by a real human man, not a machine!

Margie is fascinated by this idea. As she sits in front of her boring mechanical teacher waiting for her math lesson to start, she starts daydreaming about the past. She imagines all the kids from the whole neighborhood laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, helping each other with homework, and having human connections. The story ends with her sighing, thinking about 'the fun they had'.