Apparently, this child's parents have taken appropriate steps to educate this prodigy...they have hired a tutor, taking him out of school. The tutor was not looking for advice as to how he, probably skilled and educated at this sort of thing, should approach the child's education. Instead, the child expressed an interest in programming, and he was asking for a direction in which to guide him. As a group, we seem to have taken this opportunity to complain about the miseries of our own childhoods, instead of answering this educator's question.
I would suggest you consider getting him involved with the hurd project. This is a terrific way to learn about OSes due to the modularity of the design. Potentially, one could spin off many different variations from that core. Creativity will determine where that fundamental base could lead.
By approaching the open source community with this question, it is reasonable to assume that this tutor is looking to have him "learn by doing", which we all know is the best way.
Good luck.
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Apparently, this child's parents have taken appropriate steps to educate this prodigy...they have hired a tutor, taking him out of school. The tutor was not looking for advice as to how he, probably skilled and educated at this sort of thing, should approach the child's education. Instead, the child expressed an interest in programming, and he was asking for a direction in which to guide him. As a group, we seem to have taken this opportunity to complain about the miseries of our own childhoods, instead of answering this educator's question. I would suggest you consider getting him involved with the hurd project. This is a terrific way to learn about OSes due to the modularity of the design. Potentially, one could spin off many different variations from that core. Creativity will determine where that fundamental base could lead. By approaching the open source community with this question, it is reasonable to assume that this tutor is looking to have him "learn by doing", which we all know is the best way. Good luck.