Will the Freepascal suit for elementary school?

[xdhpc]

Hi, I'm a teacher in a primary school.
Do you think the Freepascal program language suit for elementary school students to learn?
Involve freepascal grammar, and many algorithms such as qsort,recursion,Depth search,Breadth search

[Kays]

[…]Do you think the Freepascal program language suit for elementary school students to learn?[…]

Sure. But I'm a pretty demanding person. I don't believe there are “stupid” people (though truly some earned that attribute), because anything else – from my POV – would be like an insult.

What about “scratch”? Have you had a look at it?
But if your school's technically oriented it's more appropriate to not push mice around.

PS: Yeah, mhh, “scratch” is limited in which data types it provides.

[jacmoe]

I think it is suited.
But Scratch is pretty good - should be the first programming experience that elementary school children is exposed to in my opinion!

[Thaddy]

Scratch is even designed just for that purpose. Way better than a general purpose language (any) for your purpose. I highly recommend it. as does my 9 yr old.
Things like  "many algorithms such as qsort,recursion,Depth search,Breadth search" really come to life.

[Leledumbo]

Yep, go with scratch instead. I think Pascal is better introduced to junior high school students, as they start learning to think logically.

[Thaddy]

Besides scratch, you also have the much older Logo/Turtle which deserves a look in their current implementations. But kids like scratch.... Give'm a Raspberry Pi and they're hooked... (even works on a Raspberry Pi zero, a $1,- computer...)
Just a side note, for Windows and Mac only download from the original site.

More info.
https://scratch.mit.edu/about/

[jmm72]

As I'm teaching Pascal to two guys 12 and 10 years old, I'll tell you that certain abstract concepts don't go well below certain ages. Search on google about it, plenty of sources to read. Scratch is a good option for elementary school and all the programming concepts from the bare basics all the way to the complex stuff. Object Pascal might be better suited to 14+ yo, depending on the proficiency of your alumni. Mine are smart and I'm not teaching them anything they can't chew and swallow.

And remember that Pascal was designed for teaching programming, and good programming behaviours, so it might be too strict for elementaries who would rather make an airplane sprite move around than to learn what is a record or a *gasp* pointer.

[Phil]

elementaries who would rather make an airplane sprite move around than to learn what is a record or a *gasp* pointer.

https://www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/

[Thaddy]

elementaries who would rather make an airplane sprite move around than to learn what is a record or a *gasp* pointer.

https://www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/

Scratch is designed for 8-12 year olds. And it is a proven concept. Have a look