Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 824

Heiskell:

Yes, well, that was another one of those forays of ours. We had a book publishing company and one day I think Jim Linen met with somebody at General Electric, and out of that conversation developed the thought that we could use the new computer technology in education. And we created a joint company called General Learning, which had very, very ambitious goals. I think we were both to put in 50 million dollars, or something like that, and really use computer technology as a teaching tool--as part of the school system, elementary and high school system. And we organized the company and began making the hardware and the software. We had as chief executive one of those charging G.E. types and he put together a marvelous business plan, and it all looked great. We were about to get into the chute when our man on General Learning, Frank Keppel, who had been--in those days it wasn't Secretary of Education, but it was the equivalent of it--and he had come to work for us. And Frank said to me, “You know, all of this is just fine. I'm sure that computer education would be a very good thing for the school system of the U.S. But have you really thought of the problem of moving the school system from A to B, not to mention from A to Z?” He said: “Getting the school system to change anything is a near impossi -bility. Getting the school system to go from books to computers would take twenty-five years”--and we assumed that we would do the whole thing in three to four years. So I listened to him, and I thought, “My God, are we lucky! At least we have got one guy who knows what the real situation is.” And we just plain pulled back because of Frank Keppel's warning, and saved ourselves a fortune because others tried it, including I.B.M. They bought a company, and





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help