How To Get a Game-Obsessed Teenager Into Coding?

looseBits writes "I have a friend whose 14-year-old son spends all his time gaming, like any normal teenager. However, my friend would like to find a more productive interest for him and asked me how to get him into coding. When I started coding, it was on the Apple II, and one could quickly write code that was almost as interesting as commercially available software. Now, times have changed and it would probably take years of study if starting from scratch to write something anyone would find mildly interesting. Does anyone have experience in getting their children into programming? How did you keep them interested if the only thing they can do after a week is make the computer count to 10 and dump it on the screen?"

Comments

Please, don't do it . . .

[PolygamousRanchKid]

. . . I hate when I see folks who have no business coding, trying to code. It hurts them, when they realize that they don't have the knack for it . . . and it hurts me when I have to clean up the mess that they leave behind.

Re:Please, don't do it . . .

[localman57]

At the risk of going all nationalistic, I believe that this is one of the advantages that companies located in North American and Europe have in recruiting people. In NA/Eur people pick engineering / comp-sci. In Asia, your parents often pick it for you. The result is that a higher percentage of people in the field here have "The Knack".

Re:Same way you get your kids interested in gaming

[frogzilla]

I tried various things with my son but nothing took until he started taking a programming class at school (14, grade 9). Now in Grade 10 he has written a poker game in Java that surprised me with the detail he managed to add. There's even a (low-skill) AI to play against. It took a bit of maturity and a structured environment that I couldn't give him. Now he's reasonably keen and though he still plays online that's also diminishing. I think anyone who spends a lot of time on games past about 16 years needs some help growing up. The need to play so much indicates (to me) that they don't have enough interesting, more important things to think about.

Re:Same way you get your kids interested in gaming

[Darinbob]

Oh the horror of being a teenager. No expenses, no responsibilities, and someone to clean up after you.

Re:You don't

[fishexe]

My mom saw me playing Super Mario Brothers when I was 8 and asked if I'd like to learn to make my own games.

This is the key point. You don't start with asking Slashdot how to get the kid into programming.

Now you're just being a pedantic asshole. Asking was a way of getting me interested. The bunch of books that you give the kid are also a way of getting them interested. Two very different selections of introductory books will have two very different effects on the kid's interest. The way you go about presenting the subject also has an effect. Asking for advice about how to get the kid interested is a perfectly reasonable part of this. If he likes it, then it doesn't matter whether the person introducing it came up with some scheme to make it more likable, or the kid was just born with a latent desire to program. All that matters is that the kid has found a healthy hobby. When you introduce potential hobbies to your kid, which your kid thinks of only in terms of whether they're fun but which you've picked out to be healthy for growth, that's not some evil conspiracy. That's just basic parenting. Heaven forbid parents should engage in actual interactive parenting. By your logic and GP's, we should never teach our kids the habits of brushing their teeth and eating their vegetables unless they express a pre-conceived interest in these things, because that's pressuring and controlling.