I always introduce microcontroller programming by comparing it to teaching a toddler a task. Once you've taught a toddler how to put on shoes and socks, you've already accomplished something harder.

The child can understand bigger concepts than the microcontroller but often gets confused and learns more from repetition.

The microcontroller can't understand big concepts. About all you can tell it to do is to pick up things and move them from one container to another. However, its memory is accurate and its speed is incredible.

One of the best 1st day microcontroller introductions I've seen is a project wherein you turn the classroom into a set of registers, accumulators, stacks, and program counters. It demistifies the construct to that of a fast but dumb tabulator. You get that idea early and microcontrollers won't scare you.

What usually surprises people learning assebly language is that everything is at such a primitive level. While this annoys people with short attention spans, it has the benefit that ANYONE can learn it if they only stick with it.

There is no hard mathematics involved. Most people don't really learn applied binary mathematics until grad school.

aka j