Upward Bound: First year. Воробьева М.Г - 35 стр.

UptoLike

ВУЗ: 

ВолГУ | Волгоград

Составители: 

Рубрика: 

— 35 —
Margie was scornful. «School? What’s there to write about
school? I hate school».
Margie always hated school, but now she hated it more than
ever. The mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in
geography and she had been doing worse and worse until her mother
had shaken her head sorrowfully and sent for the County Inspector.
He was a round little man with a red face and a whole box of tools with
dials and wires. He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple, then took
the teacher apart. Margie had hoped he wouldn’t know how to put it
together again, but he knew all right, and, after an hour or so,
there it was again, large and black and ugly, with a big screen on
which all the lessons were shown and the questions were asked. That
wasn’t so bad. The part Margie hated most was the slot where she had
to put homework and test papers. She always had to write them out in
a punch code they made her learn when she was six years old and the
mechanical teacher calculated the mark in no time.
The Inspector had smiled after he was finished and patted
Margie’s head. He said to her mother. «It’s not the little girl’s fault,
Mrs. Jones, I think the geography sector was geared a little too quick.
Those things happen sometimes. I’ve slowed it up to an average ten
year level. Actually, the overall pattern of her progress is quite
satisfactory». And he patted Margie’s head again. Margie was
disappointed. She had been hoping they would take the teacher away
altogether. They had once taken Tommy’s teacher away for nearly a
month because the history sector had blanked out completely. So
she said to Tommy. «Why would anyone write about school?» Tommy
looked at her with very superior eyes. «Because it’s not our kind of
school, stupid. This is the old kind of school that they had hundreds
and hundreds years ago». He added loftily, pronouncing the word
carefully, «Centuries ago».
Margie was hurt. «Well, I don’t know what kind of school they
had all that time ago». She read the book over his shoulder for a
while, then said, «Anyway, they had a teacher».
«Sure, they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It
was a man».
«A man? How could a man be a teacher?»
«Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them
homework and asked them questions».
«A man isn’t smart enough».

Страницы