> I would have them build anything and everything with the caveat that no matter how good they were (or weren't) the quality of their code would suck looking back in 5 years

Great point!

I had a similar experience growing up, but I think a lot of people that want to learn quickly give up.

What do you think we can do to keep people excited about it? I was talking to a few friends at UMich and they suggested we have them build their own personal websites so they have something tangible they can show their friends.