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How To Encourage a Young Teen To Learn Programming?

Posted by Soulskill on from the electroshock dept.

Anonymous Hacker writes "I'm in a bit of a bind. My young teenage son is starting to get curious about computers, and in particular, programming. Now, I'm a long time kernel hacker (Linux, BSD and UNIX). I have no trouble handling some of the more obscure things in the kernel. But teaching is not something that I'm good at, by any means. Heck, I can't even write useful documentation for non-techies. So my question is: what's the best way to encourage his curiosity and enable him to learn? Now, I know there are folks out there with far better experience in this area than myself. I'd really appreciate any wisdom you can offer. I'd also be especially interested in what younger people think, in particular those who are currently in college or high school. I've shown my son some of the basics of the shell, the filesystem, and even how to do a 'Hello World' program in C. Yet, I have to wonder if this is the really the right approach. This was great when I was first learning things. And it still is for kernel hacking, and other things. But I'm concerned whether this will bore him, now that there's so much more available and much of this world is oriented towards point-n-click. What's the best way to for a young teen to get started in exploring this wonderful world of computers and learning how to program? In a *NIX environment, preferably." Whether or not you have suggestions for generating interest or teaching methods, there was probably something that first piqued your curiosity. It seems like a lot of people get into programming by just wondering how something works or what they can make it do. So, what caught your eye?

3 of 1,095 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No ShortCuts !!! by D'Sphitz · · Score: -1, Troll

    Why Python? So he can learn how important white space is, and write entire apps with a single line of code and no idea how it happened, and learn to program with no job prospects?

    I have nothing against Python but as a learning language I put it down there with Perl.

  2. Re:No ShortCuts !!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Don't forget your sister blowing you, faggot.

  3. SDK IPhone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Offer him an iphone and a macbook :)
    It's just amazing what you can do with just 50 lines of code. Great HMI, animation, gesture and move detection, sounds, GPS.
    He can quickly takes pleasure on a convivial device, and furthermore share his app and see the comments on app store.