yesterday i had the delight of teaching two little autistic kids how to mod minecraft, and it was the first time either of them had even opened the file explorer on their laptops. they installed a gun mod and a jujutsu kaisen mod, then flew around in creative mode shooting things with rockets and bullets and giant energy balls. i got to teach them how to use a keyboard, what programs and files are, what a browser is, how to navigate the computer and what all the words mean. it was really beautiful seeing their faces light up as they began to figure stuff out on their own. the last thing i did before i left was teach them how to seek out their own preferred games and mods and install them by themselves. they were talking about running a server together and playing with their friends, even teaching their friends how to add mods so they could all play together. i nearly cried.