teaching programming to children

[Daniel Ehrenberg]

> A young friend of me (12 years old) has asked me to teach him programming (after
> I shortly described my programming job as telling the computer what to do and
> not the other way arround). I choose python because I personally like it but I
> was wondering to what extent is it appropriate for this task.
> 
> a) Its interpreter is very nice but it hides some basic truths about computers.
> Namely, the need to compile and the differences between the languages of humans
> and languages of computers.

Underlying truth that all programs have to be compiled? That's a
reason not to use any scripting languages? Compilation is not that big
a step, and scripting languages are gaining ground. You like Python,
so you probably use it for many things. Why can't your friend?

Python is not exactly like English.
> 
> b) Most simple tasks can be achieved so easily that "there's nothing to learn".
> What do you think would be our first programming assignments? And what language
> constructs should we start with?
> 
There is stuff to learn, and if there truly is "nothing to learn",
then you can move on to advanced things faster.

> c) Should we run to "cool" things (GUI, networking, other proposals?) or should
> we first make a good hold of "algorithms" (which in my opinion is at the heart
> of programming).
> 
IMHO you shouldn't fixate on algorithms because it will bore him/her.
Maybe you could teach algorithms and "cool" things at the same time?