I was in MGM in California in the '70's too, and my experience was a bit better.
They taught us Latin roots, though only one per week, and we were supposed to go home and look in the dictionary for words that began with that root. It was a contest to see who could come back with the most the next week. (I never actually did this activity, since I was a bit cynical about a "contest" where everyone was looking at the same source.)
Oh, and at one point we each chose our own topic to do a project on. Mine was ancient Egypt, and they dug up a book of lame stories about Egypt for me, so reading that was what I did for my project.
At least they were trying.
It was mixed age, 4th through 6th, because I remember being in the same group with my older sister. I became increasingly disillusioned as I progressed from 4th to 6th and there were no longer kids older than me. I was frankly shocked at some of the kids from my class who qualified for the program. Looking back, I guess they were MG. Wow was I cynical already at that tender age.
