Which programming language should be taught in South African high schools?

[cguy]

I agree with you. but kaufen does have a point. At the early stages you want to create interest more than anything. Courses should ramp up. They may start with "fun stuff", but for say year 1 or even 2. Even during year 1 etc, you can offer incentives for extra credit for those picking up concepts faster than others. People develop at different rates. You cant start off assuming everyone is going to be taken with hybrid insertion+quick sort algorithm at the same time, or writing a real-time 3D renderer.

Its a general problem with teaching I think that there is this one-size fits all teaching

For sure - I think building interest is paramount, and not everyone learns at the same pace, however, I have noticed that many interesting (and accessible) topics have somehow shifted over time from something "kids can learn" to something "university level".

Machine function (not assembly as such, but I self learned that), algorithms, data structures, etc. were part of my curriculum from "standard 6", and I learned logo (loops, control, functions, etc.) at school in "sub b". There was a lot of effort put into making these interesting (the visual patterns in logo, the robotic turtle with a pencil, etc.), and it worked. Similarly, understanding algorithmic complexity, and boolean algebra/logic circuits, data structures, etc. was made interesting via programming examples, and hands on experience. This experience was shared by many, not just me.

I remember that in the 80's kids could learn assembler:
Machine code for kids

So, while I agree that fun is important, my point is that this doesn't have to be dumbed down for "kids" in order to be fun, since there really isn't that much here that is inaccessible to children.