Some of you are old enough to have experienced "modern math", the kind of math that was taught in many schools in the US. I personally experienced it in school in California. I once found a first-year algebra "new math" text book at a rummage sale once that had "extra for experts" sections that were lessons in PL/1 programming. Keep in mind this book was published in the early 1970s. You'd need access to an IBM mainframe (or other computer that had a PL/1 compiler) to actually run your own programs. It was sort of a crazy idea then because not many high schools had access to computers in 1970. (Yes, Bill Gates was very lucky!) But it makes a lot more sense today. Computers are everywhere, most kids have access to them somewhere, programming tools that cost no money are very common, and (this is probably the most important thing) the programming languages available today are far more powerful and, in many cases, simpler to write than any that I can think of available in 1970 with the exception of Basic. So, IMHO, not a bad idea.

Oh, communism wasn't that bad. Of course, any Russians or Poles here shouldn't read this post.... too late. ;-)