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Chat with a 14 year old made me rethink how I teach coding
I was helping my nephew with his school project last Tuesday, just basic HTML stuff. He asked me why I kept saying 'div tags are containers' without explaining what they actually do. Honestly, it hit me that I was using all this jargon without thinking about how it sounds to someone new. He said 'just tell me what it looks like on the screen, not what it's called'. Ngl, I realized I've been overcomplicating things for beginners by focusing on terms instead of visuals. Has anyone else caught themselves doing that when explaining code to someone just starting out?
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mitchell.lee18d ago
That HTML example though, did you change how you explain it now?
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alice_hart18d ago
Used to think the old way was clearer, more direct. Kept it simple, showed the structure without extra fluff. But seeing that example with the kid's reaction kind of flipped a switch. It's not about what makes sense to us, it's about what clicks for someone just starting out. Definitely changed how I frame things now.
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