how about an even simpler explanation: tenured faculty tend NOT to teach introductory courses. If they do then typically they have to because there is nobody else willing or capable. The result: a less than completely excited teacher.

This makes NO sense for kids in classrooms. Without the ability to run silly but required pieces of software (including the new US testing SW) and Wifi students would need a Raspberry Pi IN ADDITION to some Mac or PC. Quite simply, this is not going to happen because it would mean schools would have to spend more without getting more.

or how about "Post-PCWorld" ?

Then most people will not care to steel it.

The Loga's Run world, with a maximum age of 30, would represent of median age of 15. Compared to Silicon Valley, with a median age of about 30, this would be half. Does not compute. Conclusion: Silicon Valley in 2013 DOES NOT Resemble Logan's Run In 2274

No, lets not because this turns out to be a bad idea and we have data for this. The self teaching route reaches only an incredibly small percentage of kids. More importantly, our data suggests that we can and SHOULD expose kids to computational thinking/CS/Programming at school as early as elementary school level because they actually enjoy it and it helps them with other school topics. By doing so we find that many students, particularly girls and underrepresented students, will get interested in the topic but without the "forced" school exposure they would have never considered exploring this topics by themselves. In many cases we find that not only are they getting interested in CS but actually open up more generally to school. Some of that data here: http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu/gamewiki/images/c/c7/One_Pager_CE21_CT4TC.pdf

it is about time to enable WebGL in the browser. WebGL runs fine in Safari on Macs and iOS Safari but is currently only enabled in mobile safari for iAds. In other words, it does work but is only enabled for the kinds of things that I need the least, i.e., ads.

We have been helping running computer clubs for about 20 years and have documented the things that work and don't. Creativity and ownership are key. Simply hacking Java code will go nowhere. Have them build games where they can also build their own 2D/3D artwork. Use tools like AgentSheets and AgentCubes that include powerful 2D/23D authoring and end-user debugging tools to motivate them and help with the programming. Otherwise, as you already see, you will quickly loose your audience.

Here is some research data: http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu/gamewiki/images/4/44/Will_It_Stick-submit_CR.pdf

AgentCubes in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2GWcb3aG2w0

Better Idea: Forget computer clubs! If your goal is to expose students to computer science then the computer club idea goes nowhere. This is not an opinion. We have the data. You will get few girls, rarely any minority students and the overall percentage of students participating is dismal. Try the Scalable Game Design curriculum http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu/ You can have your teachers do this and expose nearly 100% of the students at just about any middle schools or high school. With this strategy we get ~300 students per school and year instead of the ~15 computer club ones.

One can argue about the value of localized languages. For instance the localization of Pascal as educational programming language into German and French turned out to be a big flop. Of course GUI components of some IDE probably need to be localized. AgentSheets is localizable and has been localized in a number of languages but not Dutch. Even more important is the localization of tutorials. You can find some here: http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu/wiki/Frogger_Design

There is a mix of native localization (good) and Google translated ones (not so good).

The other point is that perhaps your daughter just is not excited about the making simple 2D animations and would like to make complete 3D games including 3D characters that she can create? You may want to give AgentCubes a chance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GWcb3aG2w0&feature=player_embedded

This runs as desktop application or in browsers via HTML5 (no Flash no Java) site even on cheap $200 Chromebooks.

A big point was made about creativity and the passion of experienced programmers. Then 40 students were recruited (how?) for an experimental study and given one hour to poke around in Java code. I don't quite see how the observations made can be interpreted as compelling evidence for the conclusions reached. Where exactly was the creativity? The game seems more like LEGO Star Wars, as opposed to just regular LEGO, with all the pieces are given. Could they make their own characters from scratch? It did not seem so.

This idea that USA = World is really getting old. Yes, he was a great guy. I am sad he is gone but "arguably the world's most famous film critic"! What does that even mean? In how many of the 200 countries was he known? Are you following the international scene of film critics really closely and keeping score? Would it be really horrible to just say something like "arguably the USA's most famous film critic"

AgentCubes/Inflatable Icons allows you do create 3D shapes very quickly with no 3D modeling background. Paint images in 2D and turn into 3D. You indicated that you are struggling with 3D tools such as Blender and even Sketchup. I guess I don't know what kinds of shapes and what kind of quality of 3D shapes you have in mind. We have been exploring for some time why many people have problems using these kinds of tools. The short answer is that these tools are aimed at typically professional 3D designers or, more generally, at people with a lot of time at their hands to learn an interface with a steep learning curve. If your goal is to produce 3D shapes of the Pixar level quality then there just is not way around these kinds of tools. If, on the other hand, you just need to build very simple shapes that you can produce in, say, a couple of minutes, and maybe print that on a 3D printer then perhaps Inflatable Icons may do the trick.

A benchmark with Inflatable Icons was that if it takes more than a minute to explain how to make a 3D shape it is too complex. The idea is to make casual 3D tools. We have tested this with many kids and it works great. The short version of the concept is that practically all 3D tools work on the "First Shape then Paint" while we have flipped this around to be "First Paint then Shape" You are basically drawing a 2D image first using a Photoshop-like editor. Then you use tools including inflation to turn then 2D image into a 3D shape.

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GWcb3aG2w0&feature=player_embedded

sample Inflatable Icons (you can even edit them in the browser): http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu/arcade/

If you like Lisp you should check out AgentCubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GWcb3aG2w0&feature=player_embedded