The language picked doesn't matter as much as what you can (quickly) do with it. But personally, for high schoolers, I would start with Scratch ( http://scratc

The language picked doesn't matter as much as what you can (quickly) do with it. But personally, for high schoolers, I would start with Scratch ( http://scratch.mit.edu http://scratch.mit.edu - scratch 2 will work in the browser) and then perhaps Processing.js or a game development site/tool like http://html5.yoyogames.com/ http://html5.yoyogames.com/ http://www.scirra.com/construct2 http://www.scirra.com/construct2 http://www.playmycode.com/ http://www.playmycode.com/ http://pixieengine.com/ http://pixieengine.com/ There is actual research on how to teach kids programming and computer science concepts. http://csunplugged.org/ http://csunplugged.org/ doesn't use any software at all to teach concepts like binary numbers, sorting, etc.