I started learning BASIC on an Apple IIe in 5th grade when a couple of other students and I figured out that we could write programs on the computer. We were ta

I started learning BASIC on an Apple IIe in 5th grade when a couple of other students and I figured out that we could write programs on the computer. We were taught a bit of Logo in a 5th grade class, but mostly we just learned on our own, staying in at recess and writing programs at home. (We were blessed with parents who bought Apple IIe machines as well.) I don't remember the last time I touched a line of Apple IIe BASIC; it was probably around 6th grade. Later, I learned C, and then moved on to a variety of other languages. The learning of BASIC per se wasn't particularly useful, but the fact that I learned to program at all was very useful. I'm not convinced that the long-term viability of the language (or even the particular programming paradigm) is very relevant. It was writing poorly-understood BASIC code that got me into programming, and without that start, I probably wouldn't be writing programs of any sort today.