Tommy screamed with laughter. You don’t know much, Margie. The teachers didn't live in
the house. They had a special building and the kids went there."
“And all the kids learned the same thing?”
“Sure, if they were the same age”
“But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted no fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches
and that each kid has to be taught differently.”
Just the same, they didn't do it that way then. If you don't like it, you don't have to read the
book.”
“I didn't say I didn't like it," Margie said quickly. She wanted to read about those funny
schools.
(a) What purpose did the special building serve?
(b) What did Margie’s mother say about teaching method?
(c) Explain: Screamed with laughter
(d) Why does Margie deem the schools ‘funny’?.
Answers
(a) The special building served the purpose of being the real school , a place where all the children of olden days came together laughingly , studied the same thing while being taught by a man.
(b) Margie's mother always said that a teacher needs to be adjusted according to the learning capacity of each boy and girl , teaching them differently likewise .
(c) Tommy behaved like an authoritarian who criticized and hurt Margie whenever she spoke or stated something wrong or 'silly' according to him . When Margie learnt that the old schools had a human teacher , she said that she wouldn't want a man to live in her house because she wasn't aware about the special building called as school . When she said this he laughed loudly humiliating her . This loud laughter is termed as screamed with laughter .
(d)Margie deems the old schools 'funny' because everything she read from the real book was new and surreal for her . She found them to be strange . She found all children to learn together , being taught by a man, writing in pages where text didn't move to be strange and hence called them funny .