# Grade School "high tech" from the 1970's **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 21, 2008, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205 "2008-03-21T10:15:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/21 "2008-03-22T03:29:28Z")
My elementary school was a classic 1970s-era facility, with an open floorplan centered on the library, and semi-open classrooms that could be expanded by moving folding walls. High tech? Of course I remember film strips, SRA cards and the like. Since my school was on the cutting edge, though, we went beyond such media. We have VCRs. [U-Matic VCRs](http://www.rewindmuseum.com/umatic.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/22 "2008-03-22T08:22:49Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] What could have been “deemed inappropriate” about the 2 SRA lessons? Who did the deeming, the auction lister, the school or instructor that used the lessons, the state they were sold in, what? I probably don’t want to know as it would just depress me. [/QUOTE] Not to speak for the auction lister, but my (freaky Protestant and anti-USA) elementary school routinely suppressed SRA modules, stapled shut World Book sections, etc. My then-best-friend’s mom was a teacher at the school, so we had access to the sealed materials, prying open staples to see what was hidden from us (restapling to cover our tracks, of course). Most of the material concerned, as you can predict, evolution, dinosaurs, or anything that mentioned life on earth being beyond a certain span of time. Also censored was material regarding any works of art showing nudes-- I recall some sealed material, not sure whether SRA or World Book, showing photographs of the Venus de Milo statue. And, perhaps unique to my school, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was off-limits. From my pitiful memories of the SRA modules (all of which, I’m proud to say, my friend and I worked through _for fun_ as his mom did school duties after classes), I’d wager the censored modules were the more blatant “dinosaurs came before humans, millions of years ago” ones. My school let a few slip through, despite their weirdness. As an aside… does any other SRA-taker remember the choice of subject matter often tending toward the fantastic when regarding consumer electronics/hardware? I swear, every “we’ll have jet-packs/flying cars/other retro-futuristic stuff” memory I’ve got comes from those damn things… ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/23 "2008-03-22T12:40:05Z")
I remember one SRA card that (I swear) was some kind of flattering mini-bio of Mussolini, what a friendly guy he was. ---
**Author:** ![hrusko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@hrusko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hrusko)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/24 "2014-10-08T20:22:48Z")
I have been on the same kick, I don’t know why I started down this path today, but your question helped me find what I’m looking for. It is the System 80, and here a news paper article with a black and white picture of it: [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19750514&id=IAcQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9o4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7070,2547835](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19750514&id=IAcQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9o4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7070,2547835) ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/25 "2014-10-09T15:54:29Z")
> [@hrusko](#): > > I have been on the same kick, I don’t know why I started down this path today, but your question helped me find what I’m looking for. It is the System 80, and here a news paper article with a black and white picture of it: > > [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19750514&id=IAcQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9o4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7070,2547835](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19750514&id=IAcQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9o4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7070,2547835) “Franctions?” ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/26 "2014-10-09T19:38:38Z")
> [@hrusko](#): > > I have been on the same kick, I don’t know why I started down this path today, but your question helped me find what I’m looking for. It is the System 80, and here a news paper article with a black and white picture of it: > > [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19750514&id=IAcQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9o4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7070,2547835](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19750514&id=IAcQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9o4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7070,2547835) Were they a sort of turquoise and white color? I think we may have had those when I was in elementary school. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/27 "2014-10-09T20:54:25Z")
I liked the SRA cards too. They were a whole lot better than the Be A Better Reader series, which I may pit at some point. I also remember (don’t know what it was called) a tiny rectangular machine with an even tinier screen on which you could watch a grand total of two different educational cartoons–not filmstrips, actual moving images. One was about spiders, and I don’t remember what the other one was. It was so cool that even though spiders creeped me out, I still watched it repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/28 "2014-10-10T02:58:58Z")
> [@The\_Scrivener](#): > > Come to think about it, I can imagine a retro-themed party of 20-or-30-something urban hipsters having some not-rated-G fun with plaster-casting. IIRC, plaster of Paris can get pretty warm as it “cures”. Hipsters should check in with [someone who knows the technique](http://www.cynthiaplastercaster.com/)… ---
**Author:** ![Orionizer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orionizer/32/4442_2.png) [@Orionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orionizer)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/29 "2014-10-10T17:02:09Z")
Does anyone remember [these](http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=iiGTxjn5CS8oMM&tbnid=ig9W6RnnTDaINM:&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffun107.com%2Fis-this-the-new-iphone-6-or-the-little-professor%2F&ei=rxA4VLHfEpHCggTq54D4Ag&bvm=bv.77161500,d.aWw&psig=AFQjCNGEAA6Asbpb0GsJ-EtZKrgvBwZOHA&ust=1413046794452613)? (The picture, not the article). I wanted one SO bad! ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205/30 "2014-10-11T16:41:21Z")
> [@hrusko](#): > > I have been on the same kick, I don’t know why I started down this path today, but your question helped me find what I’m looking for. It is the System 80, and here a news paper article with a black and white picture of it: > > [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19750514&id=IAcQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9o4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7070,2547835](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19750514&id=IAcQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9o4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7070,2547835) WOW A zombie thread I started, that’s the beast! It got you out of class for an hour.😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-school-high-tech-from-the-1970s/442205.md?page=1)