I understand where you're coming from. I'm often frustrated by how our industry allows software to be incredibly shoddy. But attracting kids to programming is n

I understand where you're coming from. I'm often frustrated by how our industry allows software to be incredibly shoddy. But attracting kids to programming is not the same problem as making sure they grow into adults who do their job well. Different ages have different priorities. The best way to attract kids to any activity, including programming, is to give them something fun to do. Let them make crappy stuff that's flashy and fun. If they choose to stick with it, teach them to do it well and help them unlearn the bad habits. Incidentally, I consider bad habits to be incredibly important. Yeah, sure, you can read about how to program well, but it's not the same as having your own bad habit bite you in the ass and learning from it. It's even better if you learn bad habits and then unlearn them while you're still young and not when it might impact customers.