But if you want to be more serious about it: Sure, I concede the rebuttal. Gaskin's a very creative programmer. He also works on stuff that I actually care about. I agree that passing a Microsoft certification is not in the same league as the least thing that the guy has done. And I agree that cramming for Microsoft tests is not an especially great activity to encourage a nine-year-old to do.

None of which alters my initial reaction: Congratulate the girl and move on. Just because she's no Gaskin doesn't mean she deserves to be the scapegoat for things that are not her fault (the purported meaninglessness of her prized credential; the bureaucratic, credentialist nature of the Microsoft IT consulting ecosystem; the existence of cram schools and dominating parents; the insecurity of Western IT folks about the rise of the Indian software industry; and the fact that she is nine years old and can't necessarily be expected to understand any of this). She's a living, breathing kid who may be reading this thread right now -- a kid with the potential to become creative and talented, who may already be creative and talented when she's not being paraded in front of news cameras. She's not a hypothetical pawn in our intellectual game.