Kids can't use computers... and this is why it should worry you

[Siegfried]

I‘d assume the proportion of 80s kids who programmed computers but shirked games to be even smaller yet. A lot of type-in-software was games and while word processing and spreadsheets were available, the former needed a printer which then was a rather expensive peripheral. I think most non-game type-in software was graphics and sound demos or small utilities.

The gaming percentage was most probably lower for calculator programmers (although there are quite a few versions of Lunar Lander) but kids with programmable calculators were even fewer than computer kids. Calculator programming is arcane compared to BASIC for all but the simplest programs and feels more like programming in assembly for branching and looping.

Ham and electronics probably attracted roughly the same type of kids as home computers before home computers became a practical proposition.

I agree that all kids should be exposed to programming, probably quite a bit more than what is offered today. I think it’s also perfectly natural that only some will enjoy it and like breaking down a problem into small pieces to solve it. We don‘t expect everyone to enjoy the analytics required for law, to cut up animals (or later humans), to do the talk of a salesman or to play the piano, so why should everyone enjoy (or even grasp) programming. School should expose kids to a multitude of things, teach them basics and let them find out what they like best, then help them to get good at it so they can be part of our society that’s based on shared specialist labor.

I think it’s much more of a problem that there are too many „false“ role models around who instill kids with the idea that exhibiting one’s life and/or modified body features on YT is a viable career option for more than a handful, some of whom even promote their ignorance of MINT subjects.