Yep, I'm old ... back around 1982-1983 I was working on:

- Apple IIc and IIe writing game software in 6502 assembly,
- Perkin-Elmer minicomputers writing market data distribution software in FORTRAN,
- IBM PC writing trading software in PASCAL 1.0

The Apple was the most fun and the least profitable.
When the Mac was first introduced, Apple wanted developers to develop on the Lisa and target for the Mac -- this made the cost of entry for Mac developers much higher than it had previously been with the Apple II series and changed the developer landscape for quite some time (forever?).

If the kid is unsuccessful in life, the parents will blame it on the "system" and its lack of flexibility. If the kid succeeds, they'll say it was in spite of the required education.