Isk8NYC-- I hear you with regard to USFS Basic Skills and ISI Group Lessons. I really thought Basic Skills was pretty recent; it certainly "took over" what ISI had been doing for years. I dunno--the 1968 date struck me as incredible too but it is cited on the USFS Fact Sheet for 2009-2010. I just wonder if they came up with some loose form of the program and only implemented it much much later.
According to Ellyn Kestnabum, "The USFSA did not include freestyle requirements in any of its tests until the 1960s, beginning with the eighth (senior) test and adding freestyle components to the sixth and seventh (junior) tests, and finally to the fourth (novice) test in 1970, before introducing a separate freestyle test stream at all levels in 1977-1978," [Culture on Ice, p. 83].
So *ding ding* Icedancer2-- ✔ you are; you need to ask a question, please!