[gailcarm]

I don't entirely disagree, though I don't think that something needs to be difficult for the sake of it (I also don't think that's what you were saying). I happen to have a keen interest in teaching beginners about CS and programming, and know that it can be especially easy to lose a non-typical student early on. How you approach the first attempt at teaching a programming language really does matter.

[donaq]

I agree that the first attempt matters a lot. Which is why I am against hiding the difficulty. Perhaps this stems from personal experience, though, because I had a pretty effortless academic life until I hit university, where work was actually required to pass. I floundered and wasted a couple of years before gaining the gumption to just sit at a table for hours trying to understand stuff. Conversely, a friend of mine who consistently did not do well when we were in secondary school even though he studied while I was playing video games breezed through university. I think having things too easy at the start leads to having less backbone when you encounter difficulties later, which is why I think an approach of convincing students right at the start that "this is going to be difficult, but it is going to be so worth it" might be better for them.

Of course, this is just my opinion, formed from a sample size of 2, so take it with a large pinch of salt. :)

[gailcarm]

Certainly a valid opinion. :) It's a good point that hiding the difficulty could cause problems later. But I would personally prefer to focus on the difficulty surrounding how to think when it comes to programming rather than issues with syntax.