Influences Part IV — Programmed Curriculum

[Scott]

One of the truly great teachers I had was in sixth grade. He had managed to buy two computers and brought them into school and set them up in the resources room. This was in the late 1970s, when computers in classrooms were completely unheard of. No one was doing this. Educational software wasn't even available.

He made up a sheet with times on it and every student was scheduled to spend an hour a week in front of the computer.

Doing nothing.

There was no assignment, no textbook, no worksheet. Just you and a computer, plus another student next to you on another computer, also sitting there. There were no games or such available. The computer was a tabula rasa, albeit with a BASIC interpreter.

If you wanted to sleep, that was fine. If you wanted to read a book that was fine too.

But no one did those things. This was a computer. None of us had seen one in real life. Pretty soon students started figuring out things and telling each other. I think there might have been a reference sheet. It didn't take much to get started.

The first program, another student showed me.

10 PRINT "WHAT IS YOUR NAME"

20 INPUT N$

30 PRINT N$; " IS A STUPID DUMMY!!!!!"

40 END

Oh boy. You couldn't just let that stand. You had to write something to fire back. The second program checked the name. My own name coaxed N$; "IS COOL!" from the computer, anyone else's generated a randomly selected insult.

We were on our way. Everyone in the class learned to program, and our teacher didn't show us a single thing. He was a genius to do that. He trusted the students and somehow knew this is what would happen if we were left alone in a room with a computer.

[Fawn Klein]

love it

My brother in the early 80s would sit in the library figuring out how to do things on a computer. When he made it to High School. He finally had his 1st computer class. Funny thing is that he is proud to say his computer teacher would have him teach the class. My brother had learned more than the teacher through self teaching.

My Dad bought me a TRS - 80 and I did little even with the book. I admit my Dad didn't know what we wanted to learn about. He should have given it to my brother. I barely touched it. It was a waste of money.
All through school until 1991 I ran away from computers. I managed to scam out of computer time. I remember one teacher writing on my paper that the "assignment was suppose to be done on the computer". I hated IBM!

Your story is great. I'm glad your teacher was good for you. Such a cool way to learn if you aren't forced to do an assignment.

[Karen G]

I love that story!