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Learning Scratch

I discovered Scratch when J was in elementary school and got her started on it - to play and make things with. In her case the curiosity and fascination was rather short-lived - started strong but the drop off came just as quickly. She's one of those that never took a real interest in coding - it reminds me of me in some ways. I atleast tried, had a mix of success and failures before deciding this was not for me. J came to the conclusion without taking any of those intermediate steps - a sign of the time perhaps where gratification and feedback come about very fast. The reasons that the author cites why Scratch may continue to grow in popularity make sense:

 ..browsing projects shows you what’s possible. A kid begins by playing games, starts to get curious, and next thing you know, they’re changing the code to give themselves extra lives.

It believed this to be true myself but did not see J take that leap from the early stages of familiarity, curiosity and game-playing to wondering what else might be possible with Sratch and programming in general. I always struggled with understanding why some kids are able to cross that chasm and get to the other side where coding can do real things whereas others simply don't see that bridge. J was curious and eager to learn about an assortment of things and could dive deep when she wanted - this subject was just not in that category. 

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