𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗜𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗜𝘁 𝗜𝘀.

Ask a junior developer what happens when they click a submit button. Most people fail to give a clear answer.

They might say an API call goes to a server and a response returns. This is a surface level answer.

Ask them more specific questions:

  • How does the browser package the request?
  • Which HTTP method is used?
  • Where does authentication happen?
  • How does the server process data before it hits a database?

This is where the silence starts.

Junior developers are not lazy. They do not lack talent. They lack context.

We teach abstractions before foundations.

Bootcamps and tutorials focus on quick results. They want you to build a portfolio and get a job. React helps with this because you see results fast.

Learners see frameworks before they see systems.

  • They learn React before HTTP.
  • They learn components before servers.
  • They learn state management before databases.

This creates developers who know what to do but not why they do it.

This leads to tutorial hell. You copy code from a video and feel productive. Then you try to build something alone and you fail. You mistook familiarity for understanding.

AI tools add to this problem. Tools like ChatGPT help productivity. The danger starts when AI replaces thinking instead of supporting it.

Debugging used to be hard. You had to read docs and fail until you found the root cause. That struggle built your brain. If you outsource every problem to AI, you lose your engineering judgment.

Software engineering is about making decisions and understanding trade-offs. You cannot learn that through prompting alone.

If I built a curriculum, I would teach in this order:

  • HTML/CSS
  • JavaScript fundamentals
  • Browser fundamentals
  • HTTP and APIs
  • Basic back-end concepts
  • Databases
  • Authentication
  • React

By the time students reach React, they understand why data fetching exists. They understand the mechanics behind the button click.

React is not the problem. AI is not the problem.

The problem is moving through foundations too fast and expecting the gaps to fill themselves.

Are we teaching people to build, or are we teaching them to copy without understanding?

Source: https://dev.to/franklyn_nmesoma_86940ec9/react-isnt-the-problem-how-we-teach-it-is-38m8