Extra Credit for Kresten Due "The Fun They Had" by Isaac Asimov

"The Fun They Had" by Isaac Asimov is a short story about Margie and Tommy who have found a book. While this appears to not be much of a ground breaking discovery, it is. That is because it is in fact the year 2157 where there are no more books in production. Books are all e-books on TVs. This book however is written about school which turns out to be very different from now. In their day and age school is a robot which is private for everyone and marks homework in an instant. The two then discuss school and in the end Margie concludes that we had a lot of fun going to school. I for one would agree, however some others may not.

Questions w/ Answers:

1. What are some of the positive aspects of school in 2157?
   
   Answer: The most prominent positive aspect of school is that the robots are specifically tuned to a specific person meaning someone more prominent in mathematics would learn higher level maths than someone who is more prominent in humanities. Another positive aspect is that kids won't have to travel long distances to get to school. An example of long distance travelling is a girl known as Anya Metahrao from my former school (UNIS) who had a two hour commute to school.
   
2. What do you think would be some of the drawbacks or downsides to school in 2157?
   
   Answer: I think a large drawback is the lack of social interaction. This means that people wont meet others when learning which may be bad for social health and would restrict social interactions. Another issue is that the robots need to know every topic and as shown in the short story sometimes the specific sections blank out. This means the robots need to go for maintenance and might infringe learning. The final drawback is that specific or complicated questions with odd wording can't be asked. If I ask Mr. Daws what would happen if... he would be able to answer with knowledge. However, the robot would need that question and answer to be programmed into it. For this drawback to be revoked every hypothetical question would have to be encoded and have a set answer.
   
3. Which version of school do you think would be better? The version you have now, or the version Margie and Tommy have in 2157?
   
   Answer: I personally would prefer our current version of school. This is because we have many teachers and exercise social skills. We also wouldn't give presentations and similar things in 2157. This would prevent a career with usage of rhetoric. Another problem which I mentioned is that robots can't answer specific questions while teachers can. Another nice thing is that we make many friends at school and we couldn't have PE classes with robots. My final reason is that our current day schools also create openings for employment which is never bad.