Comment Forget the lang debate - teach design 1st. (Score 1) 777
All these posts on what prog lang to use when teaching kids programming is going about it the wrong way. Teach them the basics of design first and worry about the code afterwards.
I taught my nephew programming when he was 12 by using lego. Lego? Yes - Lego! I would give him an exercise to do - say build something simple like some sort of machine/building etc. Once built I would get him to describe exactly what steps were used to build it. Once he could do that to the point where he or his brothers could recreate the finished object just by using his description he was well on his way to good programming fundamentals and the lessons learned could be transposed to *any* programming lang.
Teach them the fundamentals of good program design first and worry about the coding later. Starting off with "main () { printf ("Hello, world!\n") ; }" is going to just cause them to become frustrated and bored, not to mention bad, programmers. My nephew is now 17 and he still maps out *exactly* what he wants the program to do before he even decides *which* lang he wants to use (he uses several - both win and nix based). The result? Damn good code with very few coding errors, even fewer logic errors, written in a lang that has been explicitly chosen as the right lang for the job needed.
I taught my nephew programming when he was 12 by using lego. Lego? Yes - Lego! I would give him an exercise to do - say build something simple like some sort of machine/building etc. Once built I would get him to describe exactly what steps were used to build it. Once he could do that to the point where he or his brothers could recreate the finished object just by using his description he was well on his way to good programming fundamentals and the lessons learned could be transposed to *any* programming lang.
Teach them the fundamentals of good program design first and worry about the coding later. Starting off with "main () { printf ("Hello, world!\n") ; }" is going to just cause them to become frustrated and bored, not to mention bad, programmers. My nephew is now 17 and he still maps out *exactly* what he wants the program to do before he even decides *which* lang he wants to use (he uses several - both win and nix based). The result? Damn good code with very few coding errors, even fewer logic errors, written in a lang that has been explicitly chosen as the right lang for the job needed.
