I hadn't thought of this.
Programming comes easily to me. I learned by reading the manual that came with the TI-99/4A. But, I am methodical and do not forget what I learn.
I would guess, that if you tried to learn programming like most people learn in classes... well, then you would fail. Because getting a C, getting 70% of the code right doesn't work at all. Its 100% or nothing.
The other problem with learning programming is that most kids are never taught logic. And, you really need to understand logic before you can understand computer logic. It really is all 0s and 1s. There is no room for "sorta"