[inpooling]

Initial interest is very important but not enough. The best way to teach teens (not just today) would be by making something simple and interesting together with them. It can be as simple as a "tic-tac-toe". Then add on complications little by little. The language itself doesn't really matter. It's always evolving but the concept is similar through all common languages. Here is my story: I was born in the mid 80' and was curious about computer science. Unfortunately all my computer science classes turned to be super boring at that moment...I decided to switch to economics and finance. Occasionally I used python/sql for some basic scripts at work. But I never understood "the magic" of coding... till recently I started learning coding with a bootcamp. I was so surprised that I really enjoyed it. I loved the problem-solving aspect, the strong logic and the power to create something simply by coding! Now I look back my experience at school. Most old classmates doing well at CS started exploring coding by themselves thru gaming projects. They were so passionate about doing projects, but so much the theories, while I was worn out by most computer science classes filled with blablas. I wish I had done the fun projects with my classmates instead taking boring theory classes at that moment. Coding is such a practical material - different with other STEM subjects. We should teach people first about how to code, then how to code better with all theories behind that.