Odd that as a child growing up in the 80s every kid in my public school (in rural Kansas no less), as well as the surrounding schools I encountered, was taught programming in 6th-8th grades and also was required to take at least one high school course. Of course this was also a time when computers shipped with BASIC, users were confronted with a blinking cursor command prompt upon startup, and the very idea of a "computer" meant "tool to do things."<p>Nowadays the modern conception of "computer" is more akin to "consumer appliance," a more interactive television experience. For the majority of people learning to program a computer makes no more sense to them than learning how to make television shows... and the very same tech companies that drove the industry into the consumer appliance category now bemoans the fact that everyone appears to be consumers rather than producers.