Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror
Programming

How to encourage a young teen to learn programming 2

Submitted by Anonymous Hacker
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 curiousity and enable him to learn?

Now I know there are folks out there with far better experience in this area than myself. And 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 in College, or High School, now.

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. Yet I'm concerned whether this will bore him, now that there's so much more available, and where much of this world is oriented towards a point-n-click.

So, what do you think? 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 only, please. I don't, and won't, run Windows."
This discussion was created for logged-in users only, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

How to encourage a young teen to learn programming More

How to encourage a young teen to learn programming

Comments Filter:
  • I'm a 19 year old comp sci major going into my sophomore year in college. I took 3 years of computer courses at my high school that really helped me develop programming skills. I learned C++ first, then Java; I thought Java was easier to program on, but you might want to expose C++ to him first. Here is the syllabus for my C++ high school class: http://teacher.uscsd.k12.pa.us/ollendyke//ProgLang1.html [k12.pa.us] And my Java: http://teacher.uscsd.k12.pa.us/ollendyke//ProgLang2.html [k12.pa.us] Each section explains the topic pret
  • If i was ever going to learn to program besides a rough understanding of BASIC etc.. although thats where most people would start initially, then i would definitely go for the Apple SDK. Everything is there provided you have a mac which seems to be the trend amongst teenagers these days anyway. For free you get the SDK, a simulator to test it on and all the hardcore optimization programs. It is in objective C, which is harder to program but the market seems to be coming up pretty big these days for that be

Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value. -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre