Yes in a sense it is. You could say its modern equivalent is the MIT LLK research group's design for visual block structure in Scratch, where you cannot assemb

Yes in a sense it is. You could say its modern equivalent is the MIT LLK research group's design for visual block structure in Scratch, where you cannot assemble control flow in ways that cannot be parsed, and the quasi-physicality of it teaches you as you go. A tangentially-related story: When I was a kid I asked my chemistry teacher if a particular chemical bond could happen in ordinary circumstances. (I can't remember for sure but I imagine I asked about carbon-carbon triple-bonds, not least because it must be a common question and he was ready with the answer.) His response -- which obviously elides some details! -- was to ask me to try to represent it using the balls-and-springs chemical models. Which you can't really do ;-) I am reminded of these things, really regularly, when I design any app or website a person has to interact with. It's possible to design useful tools that are also implicit teachers -- where designs communicate possibility and limitations without overburdening the user with detail.