I am currently learning programming at the University level in ICS 110 and we are starting out with Alice, using the book "Learning to Program with Alice" by Dann, Cooper, and Pausch. The class is devoted to teaching the underlying programming concepts by utilizing a 3D animation GUI. Our first project includes world-level and class-level methods, two control sequences like loop and If/Else, and some other rudimentary aspects like "do together" and "do in order." The class is fun and interesting. We learn storyboarding and scenario writing before we code. We also learn how much the program is capable of performing before it begins to strain under our requests for complexity. My group partner has no computer experience because he comes from a homeless background and even he is progressing well in the course. If I write the scenario for him, he manages to find the available methods and functions in the library to make it work. Not bad. Don't knock it until you try it. Peace.