"Maybe you can't start out with a couple of guys in a garage any more." Of course you can't start as 3 guys in a garage anymore, all of the garage's outlets are charging our electric cars :laugh:

maybe mine's well as in mine's well how is yours

I think you should start your son off with a functional Language. Yes I know, this is the religious war you were talking about avoiding. But if the Idea is to present him with the essence of what we do; IMHO that is a basic understanding of the implementations of algorythms, there is nothing that makes it clearer than a functional langusge. Yes, I kno it's not going to directly prepare him for a J-O-B, but he's in the 9th grade. As to which one, I personally favor Haskell.