There's also the problem of what is 'simple' has changed over time. 50 years ago, simple was printing something to console. Nowadays, simple is drawing a grap

There's also the problem of what is 'simple' has changed over time. 50 years ago, simple was printing something to console. Nowadays, simple is drawing a graphic in a window. If you give a child or teenager a terminal, and show them how to print some text to console. They will not feel the magic. In fact, in my experience, they often miss the significance altogether and immediately ask me how they can turn that skill into building an app or creating a game. So learning to write software has to be reduced to small academic problems first. Like when you start learning maths, you start with arithmetic and move your way up, and eventually you find applications for it.