Honestly, if anyone else had told me this story, I’d assume that they were either exaggerating or that they were being an asshole to the other person in a way that made them shut down and not really want to engage with them, but it’s as near to an accurate recollection as I can make it. I’ve taught programming to people from all walks of life, from 13 to 60+ years old, I’ve mentored quite a lot of devs, I’ve taken kids from “yeah I’m interested in computers, I like playing games” to senior developers, and while I’m sure that my teaching style may not be perfect for everyone, I’ve never once heard any complaints that I made someone feel stupid, belittled or like they couldn’t make mistakes. I always encourage people to be as honest and open about what they do/don’t understand because if someone says “I don’t get it” I can explain something in another way that might make it click. But yeah, that day when I had just been through the whole for-loop thing and he asked me about integers again, it was as close to just completely exasperated as I’ve ever been with mentoring someone. It was a surreal, groundhog day feeling, like I was sisyphus, and my boulder was explaining to a computer science graduate what a whole number was.
I’m sorry but there’s just no way that anecdote is true. I refuse to believe it.
Honestly, if anyone else had told me this story, I’d assume that they were either exaggerating or that they were being an asshole to the other person in a way that made them shut down and not really want to engage with them, but it’s as near to an accurate recollection as I can make it. I’ve taught programming to people from all walks of life, from 13 to 60+ years old, I’ve mentored quite a lot of devs, I’ve taken kids from “yeah I’m interested in computers, I like playing games” to senior developers, and while I’m sure that my teaching style may not be perfect for everyone, I’ve never once heard any complaints that I made someone feel stupid, belittled or like they couldn’t make mistakes. I always encourage people to be as honest and open about what they do/don’t understand because if someone says “I don’t get it” I can explain something in another way that might make it click. But yeah, that day when I had just been through the whole for-loop thing and he asked me about integers again, it was as close to just completely exasperated as I’ve ever been with mentoring someone. It was a surreal, groundhog day feeling, like I was sisyphus, and my boulder was explaining to a computer science graduate what a whole number was.