[MWForum]Logo success story

[Gary McCallister]

I was trying to get a local principle excited about Logo so we could teach a
class in her school.  She had a son who was in the fourth grade so I invited her
to bring her son to my house and I would teach him a lesson in Logo while she
watched.  We set the time on a Saturday night  because they were going skiing
that day.  (her son was a rather accomplished skier for his age.)  
     So when they arrived I sat him down at the computer and began a very
traditional first lesson.  I showed him how to tell the turtle to forward and
back and right and left and then asked him to draw a square.  He figured this
out after a little and then I taught him how to use repeat.  Then I challenged
him to draw a circle.  We talked about how to walk in a circle, on step forward
and a little right and he set to work.  But he didn't know how many steps to
take.  His first attempt was just an arc.  So he begin making his little repeat
program over and over adding steps each time while we watched.  As he got closer
and closer to a full circle he added smaller and smaller numbers of steps.  Then
somewhere right around 350 or something he paused and then loudly exclaimed,
"That's why they call it a three sixty!" and then quickly typed in his correct
number.  See, he knew how to leap into the air on his skis and make a complete
revolution while skiing, and he knew that the maneuver was called a three sixty,
but he had no idea why.  
     It was tremendously exciting to see him make that discovery.  In addition,
we started teaching Logo in the elementary school the very next year and did so
for three years, until the Governor of Colorado, Bill Owens, mandated testing
and the teachers all abandoned Logo to teach to the tests.  (And in this way,
education was improved in our little community.  You probably want to leave this
little bitter note at the end off of the story.  ;-)