Re:Is programming really appropriate for a seven-year-old?
by tjr on Tuesday December 16, 2008 @06:05PM
(#400241)
I started programming when I was about 11.
I don't remember which one of us found out about it first, but a friend of mine and I came to the realization that the Apple IIe computer in our school classroom had this thing called a BASIC Interpreter on it, and we could write files of instructions to tell the computer what to do.
We loved playing the Infocom text adventure games, and we figured out that we could use BASIC to do text input and output, and put in IF lines to direct the computer to print out this line or that line based on what the user typed in. So we started writing our own text adventure games. Very simple, of course, but we loved it.
Variably, one or two other people would hang out at the computer with us, offering suggestions and trying out some lines of BASIC. We decided that programming the computer was more fun than going outside to play at recess, so we began to stay inside when the other kids went out. At first there was no problem, but eventually our teacher became concerned that we needed more social time outside with the other kids, but agreed to let us stay inside to program every other day.
A kid who spends time programming probably isn't on the path to being a social butterfly, but very likely wasn't on that path in the first place anyway. Programming is not inherintly "anti-social" or (completely) "solitary", but it may be harder at a young age to happen upon peers who are interested in it as well.
I don't remember which one of us found out about it first, but a friend of mine and I came to the realization that the Apple IIe computer in our school classroom had this thing called a BASIC Interpreter on it, and we could write files of instructions to tell the computer what to do.
We loved playing the Infocom text adventure games, and we figured out that we could use BASIC to do text input and output, and put in IF lines to direct the computer to print out this line or that line based on what the user typed in. So we started writing our own text adventure games. Very simple, of course, but we loved it.
Variably, one or two other people would hang out at the computer with us, offering suggestions and trying out some lines of BASIC. We decided that programming the computer was more fun than going outside to play at recess, so we began to stay inside when the other kids went out. At first there was no problem, but eventually our teacher became concerned that we needed more social time outside with the other kids, but agreed to let us stay inside to program every other day.
A kid who spends time programming probably isn't on the path to being a social butterfly, but very likely wasn't on that path in the first place anyway. Programming is not inherintly "anti-social" or (completely) "solitary", but it may be harder at a young age to happen upon peers who are interested in it as well.