The Soviets launched Sputnik on
October 4, 1957. Academic panic followed.
By 1960 we had devised programs to identify and
isolate "academically gifted" students and provide
them with an "enriched" program which would somehow
eventually allow us to catch the Soviets in space.
At Lincoln Junior High School in Santa Monica
California, the idea of an "XL" program was
extended to XLLD, adding the notion of "Leadership
Development". At that time, the instrument used for
sorting out these youngsters was the California
Test of Mental Maturity (CTMM), a test highly
loaded toward verbal skills, with questionable
"right brain" assessing ability. A score, or "IQ",
of 132 or above qualified for inclusion in the XLLD
program. I faced the first thirty-two thus
identified entering 7th graders, for English, Math,
and Social Studies, in September 1960. It was an
experience not to be forgotten - filled with
challenges, rewards and a really fun bunch of kids.
As the summer of 1961 approached, Joseph E. Day,
Principal, pondered the idea of a special program
for the summer, and Fred Gruenberger of the RAND
Corporation entered the loop. What followed was
like a whirlwind blowing through the halls of
Lincoln. Fred, not having a valid Secondary School
Teaching Credential, needed an accredited teacher
in the classroom. He insisted that the teacher not
simply sit in the classroom, but TAKE the class
WITH the students, thus assuring that there would
now be at least one schoolteacher who was familiar
with computing. I think it was more important for
Fred to have one enlightened teacher than to have
30 illuminated students.
That decided, the Gruenberger dynamo that was to
become a familiar site at Lincoln, prepared the
materials, arranged for an IBM 1620 computer,
with CE, even funding from IBM for a motion
picture documentary of the event.
The 32 "jumping jacks", of course, distinguished
themselves, convincing everyone that age and a
college degree were certainly not a requirement for
taming a computer. The Open House, at the end of
the six weeks, was a graduation ceremony which
highlighted the success, and dramatized the
importance of such programs to students, parents,
and teachers - sadly not those responsible for
creating educational policy.
The program was repeated during the summer of
1962, and again in 1963 when the "resident teacher"
was the first to finish ahead of her charges and
was quickly hired as a System Programmer by a major
aerospace corporation.
By 1964, IBM had tired of the idea and Fred
convinced Control Data to supply a 160 computer. It
was my turn to act as "faculty student". The
students again distinguished themselves, creating a
program to type the Open House invitations with
each parent and student name inserted at the
appropriate place. Word Processing with Mail Merge
on a primitive computer programmed in machine
language with a typewriter and paper tape - by 7th
graders!
1965, the last year, Fred again had an IBM 1620
computer, taught a class in the morning, while I
took another group of students through an afternoon
session.
Several films were made, sadly most are gone.
"But How Do I Make a Flowchart", documenting the
1965 afternoon session has been committed to video
and is alive and well.
The tragedy is that the vision of Fred
Gruenberger was ignored by those responsible for
educational policy, and is now lost in the rush to
computerize our schools mostly with functions
previously served by the school library. Little or
no attention is given to Fred's passion, Problem
Solving! His love of Number Theory and his
favored expression "It comes under the category of
Cat, comma, Ways to Skin, the," lured students into
serious mental activity, exploring the various
routes to obscure solutions.
Alas, there are all too few Fred Gruenbergers.