> Yet, this is the exact stuff the kids are interested in! They want to learn how it works.
Speak for yourself! When I was a kid I was more interested in computers than anyone I knew, and I was the first kid I knew to own my own computer, and yet most of the educationsal stuff I could find on computers was the sort of stuff that explained all about registers and CPU cycles and the like. I had ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in that stuff, other than a quick overview of how a computer is even possible. In fact, I found all this low-level stuff being foisted on me as incredibly tedious. I also had a motorcycle when I was a teenager, and I found all the nonsense about registers and CPU cycles to be like trying to explain to me how a carburetor works when what I had asked was how to do wheelies.
I was much more interested in high level languages because they let me see how I might potentially accomplish amazing feats. I found Basic to be tolerable, but the first thing that I found to be truly inspiring was APL, due to its mathematical elegance and its providing a vision of amplified productivity. And you can't get farther away from the hardware than APL!
On the other hand, later in life when I went to college, I did find it very interesting and inspiring to learn how to build (and to actually build!) a micro-controller out of nand gates and an EEPROM. Registers, CPU cycles, and the like, are the monkey in the middle. Too low level to be fun, and too high level to let you feel like you really understand things at a fundamental physical level.
Speak for yourself! When I was a kid I was more interested in computers than anyone I knew, and I was the first kid I knew to own my own computer, and yet most of the educationsal stuff I could find on computers was the sort of stuff that explained all about registers and CPU cycles and the like. I had ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in that stuff, other than a quick overview of how a computer is even possible. In fact, I found all this low-level stuff being foisted on me as incredibly tedious. I also had a motorcycle when I was a teenager, and I found all the nonsense about registers and CPU cycles to be like trying to explain to me how a carburetor works when what I had asked was how to do wheelies.
I was much more interested in high level languages because they let me see how I might potentially accomplish amazing feats. I found Basic to be tolerable, but the first thing that I found to be truly inspiring was APL, due to its mathematical elegance and its providing a vision of amplified productivity. And you can't get farther away from the hardware than APL!
On the other hand, later in life when I went to college, I did find it very interesting and inspiring to learn how to build (and to actually build!) a micro-controller out of nand gates and an EEPROM. Registers, CPU cycles, and the like, are the monkey in the middle. Too low level to be fun, and too high level to let you feel like you really understand things at a fundamental physical level.