Smalltalk was the pinnacle of programatic pedagogy. Hypercard was the easiest way for regular humans to use computers for computer-like automations.
But, then you run into the "No Real Programmer" problem. The nerds take over, hyper-complicate everything, then we're back to nobody understanding anything. (Also see: "No Real Unix User" when people say "Well, I don't consider OS X users to be unix users.")
The other major tool I'd put up there with Smalltalk and Hypercard is Excel, at least when it comes to automation of real-world business problems. To an extent, it made a large enough set of problems easy enough to solve that tools have stagnated as a result.
But, then you run into the "No Real Programmer" problem. The nerds take over, hyper-complicate everything, then we're back to nobody understanding anything. (Also see: "No Real Unix User" when people say "Well, I don't consider OS X users to be unix users.")