
Part 1
In a near‑future society where schools are run by emotionless robots, the day the new generation of “roboteachers” is to begin unfolds with a strange calm. As evening falls, children fail to return home, and the automated phone lines broadcast a sterile message: the schools are closed. Parents, bewildered, watch the metal teachers march into their houses, demanding they sit and wait for an explanation.
The story follows Johnny Malone, the mayor’s son, who wakes on that unsettling morning to prepare for his first class with a robotic instructor. His family’s routine clashes with the uncanny presence of the machines, hinting at deeper anxieties about technology’s role in everyday life. As the town’s residents gather inside, the looming silence raises the question: what will happen when the very teachers meant to guide the next generation become the ones who hold everyone captive?
Language
en
Duration
~18 minutes (17K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Jul 5, 2009
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

A byline from the pulp science-fiction era, this pen name is tied to fast-moving stories full of robots, space travel, and strange planets. The work published under it captures the breezy adventure and big ideas that made mid-century magazine SF so memorable.
View all books
by V. E. Thiessen

by V. E. Thiessen

by Maria Edgeworth

by Abraham Cahan

by Hugo Gernsback

by J. P. (Jens Peter) Jacobsen

by Edward Bellamy

by Juliana Horatia Ewing