What is the earliest age to teach kid programming?

What do you do when a kid you're mentoring is being negatively influenced by others?

• For the past few months, I have been mentoring a teenage kid. I'm doing everything I can to have a positive impact on this kid. He is very mature and wise for his age. I'm trying to teach him to be himself, but as with any teenager, he's growing into that phase where he's desperate to fit in with kids around him. Several of the people he admires are having a negative influence on him -- in the way he talks, acts, thinks, etc. And it's not just morality, but they're also influencing him to settle for mediocrity when I'm trying to help him strive for excellence. He listens to me and admires what I've managed to accomplish in life at an early age (I'm 24), so I know I have his attention...but these other kids do too, and I'm not sure if my one positive voice is enough to drown out their many negative voices. There is one person in particular who this kid also sees as a type of mentor, but me and this other "mentor" are like night and day. If I'm telling the kid to be true to himself even if it makes him different from his peers, the other guy is telling him to do whatever the other kids are doing so he can fit in and be 'cool'. It frustrates me because I know this kid can be an amazing person, but not if he continues to allow himself to be negatively influenced by these people. They're going to kill everything that's unique and special about him. How should a person handle this type of frustration?

• Answer:

  Be wise as serpent and harmless as dove.  Do not say anything about the other people around this child.  You will come off in all the ways you did not mean to come off.  Least said soonest mended.  Consecrate the time that you spend with this child. Just focus on the you and child relationship.  Pour your life into child as much as you are able.  Little is much when God is in it.  I was that child years ago.  The efforts of good people did not go wasted.  I turned out far better than even me dreamed it would turn out.  Just address the child as an individual / adult.  Hold child accountable for own actions and behaviour.  NEVER NEVER NEVER say a word about the others.  Do not show up ways of the others to the child. I am an adult in same show as you are today.  Yes, it hurts deep inside to see how others can influence the simple.  We raised 5 children oldest born 1978 youngest born 1996.  There is the span of years.  Things turned out far better than i could dream or plan.  This means that i have experience under my belt. It was tough competition with the forces out there.  Children are wiser than we think.  The child knows more than we are ready to give credit. I do not know how your own daily circumstance is.  The adults who poured into me were generally religious.  The people who poured into me lived as is they lived for me alone and me alone.  They got the chance to live and pour into me.  Maybe you do not have the same quantity / quality time to give this child.  Never mind.  You are called to sow.  You are not responsible for the results.  Just be what you can for the child. I am woman of faith.  This means my coverage of loved ones is out of this world.  I have major faith principles to draw from when I help others.  This means that i also feel responsible for the ones who are influencing.  My heart of faith has the equal sense of responsibilities to the others.  I know that not many people can fathom the scope of my reach for other people. I pray for all souls 24 hours each day.  I do not see the others as bad people who are influencing for evil.  I lived this way for over 50 years already it is the very breath of my life.  Here is an example.  It is really only one mind in all of creation = God's mind.  God's one mind is at work in ALL of creation.  Cheer up, the bad influence that the other expose do not have to have evil effect on the child. Here is one of my pet theories from long ago = many people who turned out to be schizophrenics are ones who did not have realistic exposure to the ALL of life.  I observed this to be true.  Bad influences in life have their redemptive value.  As well as, you do not need to be a prisoner so that you cannot have a bad influence on this child that you want to raise well.   I do not invite you to go be deliberately negative and evil.  But, we are human too.  We are not that perfect. This is the reason that we never pass remarks about others to the children. Yes, i did that when i did not know better.  I cleared it by acknowledging to the children that is no way to be.  I do not want to be that way.  I asked the children to forgive me.  This is the best of good example that you may set to this child.  Acknowledge your own faults to the child.  Ask the child to forgive you of your own faults.  I was raised Franciscan.  I grew up setting my rules of life and making my own personal vows.  Just only focus on what you are imparting to the child and let well enough alone.  Be wise.  Do not go trying to compensate for the wrongs that others do.  Just be your self and set off in your little ship.  Set your sails and let them take you safely home.  These are the best gift that you can give to humanity.   Work on improving yourself.  These things communicate to the child.  Maybe you can afford to register for a course that both of you attend together.  You are the student in the class on same footing as the child.  Do you know something the child is good at.  Maybe you are weak in the same thing.  Let the child help you to learn that thing.   I am one of those child who people helped out of sacrificial living.  As adult, i have nothing to give back in order to say thank you to the ones who helped me.  I am living well and this is a joy to them.  There were tough times in my living well.  i held on just for the joy it brings to my well wishers.  Praise to you for pouring out for this one child.  Before long it will be second nature for you to pour out to ALL souls.  One of the worst thing that adults are doing today is when they try to use child to judge either sides of the family.  You will get further with the child if you show the child how precious those other people are. Show your loving regard for the others.  All of us are precious in God's eyes.  Sometimes it is easier to get the message through how precious we are when we show value to those who act like wretches.  Bad people have a valuable place in all of life.  That is my trade secret.