&gt; what is the best (most feasible) way to teach non-CS folks to program<p>Teach them CS first.<p>Start with the history. Make a connection from maths to CS - Logic. Show that representation is meaning. The Code is only an abstraction but it is the only way to communicate the abstract ideas, never mind there&#x27;s different forms of code. Try to code to understand complexity, that the complexity is the reason that &quot;Programming&quot; is bigger than school. I don&#x27;t mean run-time complexity, but that is an important bit.<p>The code is just one of the real-world applications of programming, it&#x27;s secondary to problem solving, but useful enough at that. It&#x27;s well enough defined in the mathematical sense to be taught as a formally structured, rigorous generality (Theory). It&#x27;s highly developed and abstract enough to go a long way with intuition applied to immediate problems (Practice). Recurse, apply code to code. Dont&#x27; forget the disciplined mantras: RTFM, KISS DRY ...<p>Preferably it shouldn&#x27;t even be a single class. Just like everyone has to learn about numbers, matter, elements or cells, it should be important to teach logic as the very basis on the search for boolean truth. Tie in self modifying code with evolution.<p>Instead of just introducing calculators in math, introduce python, Matlab, R, all of them at appropriate times. As a prime example of applied CS that&#x27;s relevant to about any teenager with a smartphone, explain the graph theory that they are the data in.<p>It all depends on the children being on an appropriate level already when they enter elementary school. That depends on the knowledge of the previous generation. Therefore it&#x27;s a slow progress, that picks up every iteration. There generally isn&#x27;t a one size fits all program to teach programming, it depends on individual parameters. The ideal OTOH is very narrow minded and far from optimal, given many more pressing needs. Biology is booming, isn&#x27;t it? Should we ask the same question in Bio, how to teach non-Bio folks to do research? It&#x27;s coming along, the only hindrence I see is dangerous half knowledge and knowing to much.