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I teach programming, AP Computer Science. Like David I am so sad that the day when programming was the coolest thing you could do on a computer, is long gone. Like David, I wish accessible programming environments were more popular. But I disagree that a lack of accessible programming environments has caused it.
Squeak (squeakland.org) is just one example and is everything a programming teacher could ask for. It is a language which, even though it's over 30 years old prepares kids well for modern programming (unlike BASIC). It is proven to be more accessible to new learners and children than BASIC. It gives young programmers the ability to incorporate all kind of modern multimedia into their programming. In my fantasies, all elementary and middle school kids would be raised on it before they got to me in high school.
So why aren't? Because now the competition for kids' attention is fierce and there are lots of cool things to do on computers without having to figure out why this algorythm didn't get the data it needed.
I don't have a solution. I guess from now on people will learn to program only when they are paid to.
