God is a kindergarten student

December 14, 2004 12:45 PM

Another book finding thing--this one's a short story I read at maybe age seven or eight. God is a kindergarten student and his universe project isn't very good and his teacher tells his parents he's very slow. [mi]

It is not "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag," which is a bit of the same theme and also quite good. This was pretty far back and may be by asimov as I was on an asimov kick at age 7.

posted by u.n. owen to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

"Kindergarten," by James E. Gunn.
posted by mookieproof at 1:01 PM on December 14, 2004

If it stops abruptly on the eighth day, the whole thing is reprinted here.
posted by tetsuo at 1:16 PM on December 14, 2004 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: You guys rock. Thank you!
posted by u.n. owen at 1:29 PM on December 14, 2004

Response by poster: (I'm actually really surprised I had my information correct. Usually things get changed by your brain after a decade or so!)
posted by u.n. owen at 1:30 PM on December 14, 2004

Geez, I thought it was out of a Bertram Russell collection of essays. Maybe the later story was a riff on it?
posted by availablelight at 2:10 PM on December 14, 2004

Response by poster: I'm moderately sure I was not reading Russell as a seven year old.

But I don't know for sure, I could have been. I was a funny kid.
posted by u.n. owen at 2:18 PM on December 14, 2004

Man, I LOVED that story when I was a kid. Had forgotten about it almost entirely until now.

It was in this collection, which is probably why you're remembering Asimov.
posted by sailoreagle at 4:29 PM on December 14, 2004

Response by poster: Yes! That is why. I checked out every book asimov had anything to do with that summer. yay for card catalogs.
posted by u.n. owen at 6:52 PM on December 14, 2004