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Phi Delta Kappa International
Phi Delta Kappa International
Phi Delta Kappa International
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Isaac Asimov
Dack in 1951,1 wrote a story called shouting in the schoolyard, sitting in the halls and yards.
"The Fun They Had." It was only a together in the schoolroom, going - The
slow students along with
thousand words long and its plot was a home together at the end of the whom you had to crawl in weary
simple one: day. They learned the same things boredom (or the fast students, to look
so they could help one another on
Two children of the twenty-second at the other side, along with whom you
the homework, and talk about it.
century find an old book that, among And the teachers were
had to race in anxious frustration).
peo - The
other things, reveals the nature of the ... inept teachers who Could
ple.
educational system of the twentieth The mechanical teacher was make any subject dull.
- The cruel teachers who
century. To their astonishment, they flashing on the screen: "When we sharpened
discover that large groups of children add the fractions V2 and XA. ..." their claws of sarcasm on the backs of
once went to special buildings to be Margie was thinking about how suffering children who were not allowed
to community education by the ki?> must have loved it in the to talk back.
subjected
human teachers. old days. She was thinking about -The strict teachers who, dissatis
As the younger child, Margie, returns the fun they had.
fied with the innate deficiencies of a
to her own home where her own teach school, made it a prison as well.
is waiting - The
ing machine to continue The circumstances surrounding the relentless competition for
working with her on proper fractions, writing of the story were these: An old marks that taught every kid he was
the story concludes: friend of mine was editing a syndicated nothing, unless he could grind his fellow
children's newspaper page, and he asked kid's face into the dirt.
She was thinking about the old me for a little science fiction story. I Do you expect children to have fun
schools they had when her grand was in the mood to try irony and Iwas under those circumstances? Is there a
father's grandfather was a little
certain that children have as keen a child who wouldn't rather have a tele
boy. All the kids from the whole sense of irony as adults do. Of course, vision set of his own, interested only in
neighborhood came, laughing and
children fall short through lack of ex him, infinitely patient, and adjusted to
perience, so I thought I would hit them the beat of his own particular drummer?
ISAAC A SIM O V is associate profes right where they did have experience,
and wrote "The Fun They Had."
sor of biochemistry at Boston Univer
but he actually Is there any youngster, I thoughti Oince "The Fun They Had" first
sity School of Medicine,
makes his as a professional writer. who would not instantly be aware that appeared, it has been in constant de
living
Although he is best known for his school was not fun? Wouldn't he see mand for anthologies, and has appeared
science fiction, from which has arisen that it was ridiculous for the child who more than 30 times that I know of. I
his interest in the future, his 174 books had all the advantages of a personally would think, then, that I had accom
(as of now) include many works on oriented private education to long for plished my purpose effectively were it
science on
fact, history, literature, the barbarism of an earlier day? not for the fact that, among adults at
humor, geography, and so
mythology, After all, Imyself had gone to school least, a sense of irony seems notably
on. The gamut of his writings may be
once and had done very well, too. I had absent in many cases. The comments
indicated by two titles: Asimov's Guide
managed to finish high school at 15, and that some of the anthologists print in
to the Bible fin two volumes) and
Lecherous Limericks. His most recent
I hovered near the top of the class, if connection with the story, together
novel is a mystery titled Murder at the not at the actual top, at all times. with certain letters I get, often make it
ABA; the initials stand for the American School was about as good for me as it clear that the story is interpreted non
Booksellers Association which, he could* be for anyone. Yet I remember: ironically as a boost for contemporary
- The bullies
hopes, will push the book. who made life amisery education and as an author's expression
SEPTEMBER 1976 90
of horror at the thought of education Yet who would suggest a total substi statements and answer tests which the
machine can evaluate. As a result of
by machine. tution? There would be many fields of
there is a strong trend of what the machine gets back, the
Apparently study that would require the mass ex
? machine can adjust the speed and in
thought among educators that there is perience sports, for instance, nature
something dehumanizing about machine study field trips, drama, public speak tensity of its course of instruction, and
can shift it in whatever direction stu
education. ing, and so on. On the other hand, there
Why, Iwonder? would be academic subjects that do not dent interest leads.
Is there a feeling that a machine is require companionship. In fact, one Nor need we suppose that the teach
cold and hard and cannot possibly could study mathematics, or history, to ing machine is self-contained and is as
understand the needs of children? if the artificial finite as an object the size of a television
begin with, all the better
Yet if every human teacher who was and of set might be. We can imagine that the
unnecessary open competition
cold and hard and could not possibly the classroom were removed. Then, at machine will have at its disposal any
understand the needs of children were seminars could be book, periodical, or document in the
appropriate times,
removed from his or her position, I arranged in which students could listen vast, central, thoroughly encoded
suspect our educational system would to each other, comment, and profit. planetary library. And if the machine
dissolve. In short, machine education is not a has it, the student has it, either placed
Is there a feeling that a child would on a viewing or
substitute for human interaction, but a directly screen, repro
duced in for more
not relate to a machine?
supplement. In fact, human interaction print-on-paper
I suppose that in the early days of could proceed all the better were it not leisurely study.
the automobile there were those who education cannot exist
oppressed by the negative conditioning Naturally,
felt that no one could possibly relate to of an association with a dull and un apart from the world. Its nature must be
a cold, hard, dead machine as they mass-education in affected by the state of society.
inspired procedure
could to a beautiful, If civilization is to survive into the
sensitive, living volving subject matter that has nothing
horse. Yet though there may be faults in to do with the interaction. age of the communications satellite,
our automobile those do not laser-beam transmission of information,
culture,
arise out of any shortage of affection of computerized central libraries, and
human beings for the cars they drive. teaching machines, we can be reason
Q
Is there a feeling that a machine w uppose, now, that our civilization ably sure that the world will, by then,
educated child would not have contact endures into the twenty-first century (a be far more closely knit than it is now.
with other human beings and would supposition that can by no means be Living, as we do now, in an age of
therefore be seriously lacking in many taken for granted) and that technology life-and-death problems, we can see that
2010, if this growth continues un school," why should there not be regu
checked, the world population will be lar switches in fields of endeavor? At
eight billion; by 2045 it will be 16 w nless education does something to age 60, why might not someone sudden
ready to help further those new inter and automation of the industrial struc puter programs in new and esoteric
ests, and in this way, too, teaching ture of society should diminish the kind directions ? and of greater subtlety in
machines could help save our society. of dull and mindless scut-work that now the older disciplines. There could be a
occupies so a proportion of the steady, synergistic interaction of man
large
efforts of humanity. One might imagine and machine, each learning from the
I he key to this vision of education a world of robots and computers that other, and each advancing with the help
is, of course, that people enjoy learning farm and mine and tend machinery; of the other. The distinction between
if they learn what they want to learn. leaving for human beings precisely the the two varieties of intelligence may
This is not a very profound observation, type of creative endeavor for which grow dimmer and the discovery and
actually. A child who finds every school their brains are suited. refinement of knowledge, and the beat
subject boring and incomprehensible, Every child not markedly brain ing back of the vast cloud of ignorance,
seems of shows the of may be carried on at a faster rate
and who incapable learning, damaged capacity learning by
may yet bend his every faculty to an to walk, to speak, to adjust himself to both together than would be possible by
understanding of the rules of baseball, life in a million ways even before he either alone.
and may succeed in memorizing, with enters the first grade. It is clear, there
fiendish intensity, unrelated statistics fore, that the potential for creativity is
that a mathematics professor might have present in everyone, provided only that I n such a Utopian world as I describe
? which
trouble with. we make learning pleasant, and stimu (assuming it can be attained is,
Then why not allow a child to learn late (not penalize, as we usually do of course, doubtful) there is the danger
what he wants to learn? If he wants to today) any demonstration of that that everything will run so smoothly
learn baseball, let the machine teach and safely and securely as to remove all
creativity.
him the academic aspects of baseball, each follow his own particular
Let interest, and produce a society that will
which he can then apply in the field. He drummer, and if some decide to sink slowly and somnolently sink into the
may, as a result, want of his own accord into what we would think of as ignoble slumber of desuetude.
to learn to read better in order to read sloth, or to indulge in what we would Yet that need not be so, for out
more about and want to learn now consider trivia, may later in there in space we can find a new and
baseball, they
arithmetic in order to calculate baseball life grow weary and
try, instead, some more distant horizon than any we have