Getting kids interested in programming is a good idea. But, this should be done early and in stages. Little kids should do something simple like Logo (maybe with a 3D printer for fun).
I keep reading comments in HN about Javascript being too complex for beginners, and I have no idea what they are smoking. Of course students will need some 'training wheels' to get started getting results, but the basic pieces to handle and compute data are dead easy to understand.
What I meant was that it needs to be part of a curriculum that begins with early childhood. IMHO, JavaScript is too complex for most four and five-year-olds.
There should be a progression with Logo, MIT's Scratch, etc. building up to more general purpose languages/frameworks.
