Here's a little article from /. that questions the proposition that anybody can learn to program. I have often wondered about this since I was one of the self taught ones. I started at the age of 14 in 1962. First college class was 1967, by which time I was already working part time as a programmer for one of the early timesharing companies.
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/15/12/04/2153236/programming-education-selling-people-a-lie
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/15/12/04/2153236/programming-education-selling-people-a-lie