In order to accelerate learning, I believe it is best to try to learn one concept at a time. That's why I like to introduce people to the LOGO programming lang

In order to accelerate learning, I believe it is best to try to learn one concept at a time. That's why I like to introduce people to the LOGO programming language if it's their very first programming language. It introduces many basic concepts that we programmers take for granted, for example: * the fact that a computer will take everything you do literally and can't read your mind * commands * sequential iteration of commands * loops * conditionals It's also easy to get quick results which keeps an early learner from getting discouraged. Once the learner is bored with LOGO, then you take them to a more powerful language. Ruby is nice because--even though it can get complex--you can start off very simple. I would recommend this book for learning Ruby as a first language: http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Program-Second-Facets-Ruby/dp/1934356360/ http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Program-Second-Facets-Ruby/dp/19...