I attended Greendell Elementary in Palo Alto, California. Same set-up, same era --my Dad tells me
that this was the pilot program for computers in education. Anyone know anything more? In any case,
those ASR-33 Teletypes were so loud, even we deaf kids could hear them! The terminals were connected
to Stanford University, but all we got out of them was spelling and arithmetic.
I remember being intensely annoyed that the terminals would instantly spit out WRONG ANSWER --TRY AGAIN,
not even allowing you the dignity of completing your mistake, but I had my revenge. One rainy day they
weren't connecting via the acoustic modem. Each terminal had a PRESS TO START button. Knowing full well
what I was doing, I slowly but surely pressed mine down into the plastic chassis and physically broke the
switch.
"But it said 'Press to start!'" I haven't played the innocent as well since.
Epilogue: I gave my nephews an obsolete IBM ThinkPad last Christmas, figuring that it would get the ball rolling
even if they had to get software from eBay. And indeed they were so intrigued by it that their parents invested
in a modern laptop. They're nine and five --and I can't imagine how their sensibilities shall evolve as they grow
up and the technology itself continues to accelerate towards the Singularity. O brave new world...!