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The most amazing thing to me is that if you had a student that demonstrated extreme aptitude and interest in any other subject in school they'd be looked at in the best possible light. But if it involves computers, they're a "hacker".

I'm sorry to see how little this has changed in fifteen years.

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If people were doing things outside the authorized rules with their chemistry sets, for example, you can bet administrators would be pissed about that too.

I don't agree with the school's response, but I also don't buy kids hiding behind the "aptitude for computers" thing. In high school, I was programming in C++. Took a class in it. Got praised for it. You can display aptitude and interest in computers without indulging your adolescent urges to toe the line with the rules.

I graduated from high school in 2010 and had a few of these same meetings with administrators and the like. Luckily for me, one of the computer teachers was kind enough to encourage me behind the scenes and give me more constructive things to do with my time (making websites for small businesses, writing programs for science class simulations, etc.). More kids like the author need that positive encouragement.

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