ABSTRACT
“Ah, for the good old days when we were all so unhappy,” goes the French proverb. Ah, for the good old days-which weren’t that long ago-when we knew precisely what a school building was and the programming of it a simple task. In fact, it was such a simple task it was rarely elevated to the science of “programming.” Education was a relatively stable process–fixed groups of students met with teachers, the students were organized by age into grade levels and activities were conducted on a seasonal basis from September to June and from 8:30 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon. In addition to “classroom activities,” the student would play some games in the gym, would use books from the library, go to an assembly or special event in the auditorium, and, if in a high school, conduct an experiment in a laboratory, build a birdhouse in the shop, sew a dress or cook a meal in the home economics room, and learn to draw in the art room.
