What was going on when I was born?

For six months, the students in Joel S. Seidenstein's law class at the Bronx High School of Science have studied the United States Supreme Court. They have read its opinions, discussed their impact and considered the institution's crucial role in American history. Today's lesson, however, did not come from a casebook, but from an inspection tour, as 50 students from the school spent the afternoon listening to oral arguments at the Court. Individually, the experience ranged from disillusioning to sobering to refreshing, but collectively, it was clearly revelatory.

This is the last of a series of interviews with candidates for the Presidency. Excerpts are on page B11. This article is based on an interview by Steven R. Weisman and Francis X. Clines and was written by Mr. Weisman. WASHINGTON, March 28 - President Reagan said today that it would be ''most unwise'' for the United States to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and he strongly suggested that he would veto legislation in Congress to require such a step.

An article March 20 about Budd Schulberg's stage adaptation of ''On the Waterfront'' incorrectly suggested the order in which his script for the 1954 film and his novel ''Waterfront'' appeared. The film, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper articles by Malcolm Johnson, appeared before the novel.

Fierce, random shelling of civilian areas by Christian and Moslem militiamen over a wide area of Beirut today sent terrified residents racing through the streets and left at least 18 people dead and more than 100 wounded. The shelling appeared to be the worst since political talks ended in Switzerland on March 13 with a call for a cease-fire. Shells slammed into apartment blocks as ambulances careened through the streets.

Gary Hart and Walter F. Mondale criticized each other heatedly on foreign policy and arms control issues last night in a nationally televised debate marked by sharp accusations about campaign tactics in the Democratic Presidential contest. As the Rev. Jesse Jackson tried to quiet them, Mr. Hart and Mr. Mondale battered one another in a heated exchange in which the former Vice President protested that Mr. Hart was misrepresenting the Mondale position on the American military presence in Central America and the Senator from Colorado replied that his own policies were being misrepresented as well. ''Why do you run those ads that suggest that I'm out trying to kill kids when you know better?'' Mr. Mondale asked, referring to Mr. Hart's campaign advertising. ''I think you ought to pull those down tonight.'' Blunt Language Exchanged ''I would answer by asking you a question,'' Mr. Hart retorted. ''Why have you questioned my commitment to arms control and civil rights when you know that I have just as much commitment to both of those as you do?''

Pizza Time Theater Inc., a six- year-old specialty-restaurant company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., announced yesterday that it had filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Federal bankruptcy laws. Henry C. Montgomery, 48 years old, who was appointed this week as president and chief executive, described the move as the only possible alternative for survival of the company, which operates and franchises a chain of about 270 restaurants under the name ''Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater.'' The units feature coin-operated games and musical entertainment by computer-controlled robot characters.

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1984 Markets Stock prices rose sharply in brisk trading when buying by institutions and pension funds accelerated. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 20.31 points, its biggest gain in more than a month, to 1,174.62. The biggest gainers in the broad advance were large-capitalization, technology and transportation issues. (Page D1.) Credit markets did an about-face. Rates slid on the strength of new investor demand for notes and bonds. Rates on outstanding Treasury bills fell as much as an eighth of a point, with the three- month issue at 9.64 percent. (D18.) Annual yields on six-month C.D.'s soared, to a national average of 9.8 percent. (D19.)

President Francois Mitterrand was having lunch yesterday with members of the Economic Club at the Pierre Hotel, and seemed particularly sensitive to the concerns that many Americans seemed to have when his Socialist Cabinet came to power three years ago. ''We did not burn the churches,'' Mr. Mitterrand told the group, many of whose members are businessmen in New York City. ''We haven't closed the factories. We didn't create an Iron Curtain. We have chosen freedom. I think I've made my point.''

Stock prices and trading volume soared yesterday, propelled by declining interest rates and accelerated buying from pension funds and other large institutional accounts. At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 20.31 points, to 1,174.62, its biggest daily gain since Feb. 24, when it climbed more than 30 points. Since then, the average has been mostly declining as concern over rising interest rates and the huge Federal budget deficits have kept many traders on the sidelines and weakened equity prices. Federal Funds Lower Yesterday, however, the credit markets did an about-face as interest rates fell broadly amid signs of improved demand for Treasury instruments being auctioned this week. The Federal funds rate on overnight loans between banks fell to as low as 5 percent during the day from its 9 1/4 percent opening level. (Page D18.)

Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan said today that ''we're not going to bend the rules'' requiring banks to reduce their profits to reflect delinquent Argentine loans. The Secretary made his statement to clarify remarks he had made Tuesday at two news conferences that indicated the Administration was looking for a way to let the banks avoid a reduction in reported profits. Discussions Continue Treasury officials said they were pressing efforts to seek ways to beat the deadline for classifying $8.6 billion in loans from American banks as nonperforming. ''There are a lot of discussions going on and we all have our fingers crossed,'' a Treasury spokesman said. ''We do not want to have a crisis over the weekend.''

A map on March 16 with a dispatch from Bainville, Mont., about the derailment of the westbound Amtrak train Empire Builder, showed an incorrect route across North Dakota. The track runs north from Fargo to Grand Forks, then almost due west across the northern part of the state.

Almost no college teaches it, but a new kind of engineering has burst on the American scene. Many people believe it may ultimately exert as profound an influence on the workplace as factory automation did decades ago. It is called ''knowledge engineering,'' and its task is to interview leading experts in science, medicine, business and other endeavors to find out how they make judgments that are the core of their expertise. The next step is to codify that knowledge so computers can make similar decisions by emulating human inferential reasoning. The knowledge engineer does this by reducing the expert's wisdom to a series of interconnected generalized rules called the ''knowledge base.'' A separate computer program called an ''inferential engine'' is then used to search the knowledge base and draw judgments when confronted with evidence from a particular case, much the way an expert applies past knowledge to a new problem.