I agree completely. There is nothing more boring then learning programming by making useless programs. I got my start in C++ doing just that, and eventually it becomes very tiresome making lame programs that don't do much of anything other than prove a concept. By contrast when I got into Perl I instantly found it extremely useful, and picked up on many things really quick. Basically I think that if you come up with some interesting and useful assignments, that they'll be much more willing to learn.