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<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2 face=Arial>A few weeks ago I
posted a comment about writing a memoir, but I feared that it would be
inaccurate, since my memories of past events are happier, funnier, less boring,
generally more positive than they actually were at the time. This is OK I
suppose or even a good thing, but I want to write it as it really was, not as I
remember it. I have a thought experiment for you.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Sunday we took my
son to the Western Railway Museum near Rio Vista. They have it all in
century theme, since their exhibits are restored train cars and trolleys from
about 1900 to 1920 vintage. We rode a restored 1911 electric trolley out
to where they were having a 1910 themed harvest festival, where the staff
dressed in 1910 costume, and had everything set up in a way that would have
entertained the kids a century ago, such as face painting, vintage clowns, a
petting zoo, pony rides, pumpkin hurling contest, pie, burgers and dogs,
etc. The thing my son loved the best was the hay palace, a large structure
made of hay bales which could perhaps be best described as a three dimensional
maze. The kids loved that.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2 face=Arial>As he played, I
remembered a story that I read about 40 years ago, a SF titled "The Fun
They Had." As I recall, it was about a couple of school age kids about the
age I was then (~10 yrs) daydreaming about how good it was 100 years before,
when school consisted of a classroom full of kids. I googled a few minutes
ago, and found that story, and learned it was originally written in 1951 by
Asimov. I didn't read it, because I wanted to perform the following
thought experiment, to test my own 40 yr old
memories. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Here's the
experiment: try to think of a story you read in your elementary school years,
then see if you can find it on the web somewhere. If so, try to write out
the story as you remember it, then reread for comparison. Short stories
are good, because it doesn't require much time, altho I might repeat this
experiment with D'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2 face=Arial>So here is what I
recall of The Fun They Had. Two kids, about fifth grade or so, discover a
book which is about 100 years old, so it was written about 1960, and start to
read about how school was taught back then. A grandfatherly sort,
historian, tries to explain how it was back in those days, when the
kids sat and listened to a single adult teacher, who put the lessons on a chalk
board. The 2060 kids were absolutely amazed that the historian could do
arithmetic without a computer of any sort, and could actually remember the days
when there were classrooms, instead of the lonely way the 2060 kids learned, one
on one with a computer. They imagined the classrooms as far better than
they actually were.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I will report back
after I reread The Fun They Had.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Do see if you can
reproduce this experiment with your own childhood reading material.
</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2 face=Arial>As I recall
classrooms, pretty much all of them, it was like being stuck in a traffic
jam going walking speed in a Maserati: not particularly comfortable, knowing you
could go so fast and so far if they would just get the hell outta your way,
waiting waiting waiting for the others to struggle and learn that which one
mastered with ease and delight, on one's own, at home, long before.
It wasn't the fun we had, it was the boredom and frustration we
endured. Yet were I to write about it now, it would sound like
the fun I had.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010><FONT size=2
face=Arial>spike</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=671334917-19102010></SPAN> </DIV>
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