John Carmack's son's game in Racket
As someone that volunteer to share computer literacy to kids, I can assure you that kids are underestimated by a big margin. I saw a lot of kids adsorbing concepts more easily than some adults. I'm not obviously talking about Monads; but the concepts are still fundamental to programming. Kids can get sufficient results to do something on their own and to  really enjoy it.<p>The thing that I see most, and in this activity, the thing that displease me most is: parents that work as programmers and they pretend that their children must be programmers too. They bring them because they tried in all ways to make them interested and didn't succeed. One parent, a programmer, was worried with the quality of the teaching and wanted to be present a day. After the end of the meeting(I like to call them meeting. Kids see school as prison rather than joy, and I don't want to make them feel uneasy) the programmer seemed pleased of the experience and made a praise about the kids being happy and interested. He told me that he would send his son, in the hope that this time he would listen and asked about the price. I told him the truth and true nature of that meeting: they are all kids that really wanted it: When I am the new batch I usually try to talk of other things and wait something that makes me happy: a kid asking me when we begin. This is the clear sign that there is something in the room that is happy to learn. The programmer looked a bit puzzled and I told him my opinion. Are you sure that this is what your son want? If you imprison your son in something, he will totally hate it, wasting an activity that he could have enjoyed at a later time. I finished the speech saying that I'm doing it for free. My reward is making them have a good time and hopefully, giving them a better future.
Kids in front of other people can have problems and feel anxiety. So, Carmack, I'm worried if having an entry bar of all the Internet watching your son, could be a burden too high. Are we sure that this is what he wants? Is he ready to   compete?<p>Kids are precious, they will be the mark of our efforts and their mirror. I think that your son should enjoy as much as he can what he is doing and be kept away from the Internet   consumerism for now ...<p>Have a nice day.