[javajosh]

I suggest that you read "Mindstorms" by Seymour Papert (inventor of Logo). I think he gets to the heart of the (healthy) resonance between young minds and computers -- efficacy. This is a different relationship than those engendered by, for example, the casino-like air of social media apps and many (if not most) games.

My own observation is that, because modern computers are so small and so fast, you have to intentionally zoom in and slow things down to understand them. This requires special tools and special knowledge that takes patience and practice to acquire. For better or worse these actions aren't very granular: you're either using an app, or you're looking at text, and everything in-between has to fit between your ears. Plus, there are many competing "coordinate systems of thought" (language, but also tools, architecture, convention, idioms) so this is where a lot of people fall over.

Comparatively, we had it easy with the Apple IIe. The distance between running and editing was smaller; the mental model was (mostly) unitary - Basic, or in my case, Logo. The runtime model was beautifully simple, and physical, and easy to understand. It's not easy, but I think the best teachers do their best to recreate this simplicity.