停在Z的危险：用苏斯博士的话，为什么孩子应该编码

by William Cabell

通过威廉·卡贝尔

停在Z的危险：用苏斯博士的话，为什么孩子应该编码 (The Danger of Stopping at Z: Why Kids Should Code, in the Words of Dr. Seuss)

“In the places I go there are things that I see

“在我去的地方，我看到的东西

That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.

如果我停止使用Z，就永远无法拼写。

I’m telling you this ‘cause you’re one of my friends.

我告诉你这是因为你是我的朋友之一。

My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!”

我的字母从您的字母结尾处开始！”

So begins the journey of Conrad Cornelius o’Donald o’Dell into the world of code, the alphabet beyond the alphabet. Written in 1955, there is no direct mention of programming in Dr. Seuss’ On Beyond Zebra, of course, but it is clear in its message that staying locked within comfortable knowledge is a recipe for a boring and unfulfilled life.

因此，开始了康拉德·科尼利厄斯·奥唐纳德·奥德尔的旅程，进入了代码界，即超越字母的字母表。 当然，在1955年写的Suuss博士的《 超越斑马 》中并没有直接提到编程，但是很明显，它传达的信息是，牢牢掌握舒适的知识是无聊而又不愉快的生活的秘诀。

As a universal message, this is one for academics, scientists, writers, and everyone else whose job involves expanding their understanding of the world. I heartily recommend the book to these people, but today, I’m recommending it to developers and technologists as well.

作为一种普遍的信息，这是向学者，科学家，作家和其他所有涉及扩大对世界认识的人的信息。 我衷心向这些人推荐这本书，但今天，我也向开发人员和技术专家推荐这本书。

Read it with your children. Discuss with them the importance of exploration. But in particular, make clear the parallels with what you do as a hobby, for a living, or for a passion. Not only will it pay dividends for decades to come, but it will help to build a healthy respect for the utility of technology and the beauty of the humanities.

与您的孩子一起阅读。 与他们讨论探索的重要性。 但尤其要明确与业余爱好，生活或激情的相似之处。 它不仅会在未来几十年内带来红利，而且还将有助于建立对技术实用性和人文自然美的健康尊重。

超越斑马的内容是什么 (What On Beyond Zebra is about)

For those of you who have not had the pleasure — or need a refresher — On Beyond Zebra relates the story of young Conrad Cornelius o’Donald o’Dell discovering a new branch of knowledge through the Narrator’s cavalier assertion that he would never be so boring as to stop at “Z” when he had reached the “end” of the alphabet.

对于那些没有乐趣或需要复习的人， 在《超越斑马 》上讲述了年轻的康拉德·科妮利厄斯·奥唐纳德·奥德尔的故事，通过叙述者的武断断言他发现了一个新的知识分支，他永远不会那么无聊当他到达字母的“结尾”时停在“ Z”。

The Narrator explains that there are letters beyond “Z,” which allow one to spell the sorts of words that one finds in Dr. Seuss’ books, such as Glikker and Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs.

讲述人解释说，除了“ Z”以外，还有一些字母可以让人们拼写在苏斯博士的书中发现的各种单词，例如Glikker和Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs。

As the narrator drags Conrad from imaginary land to imaginary land, he shows him the incredible beasts and contraptions that they would have missed without the letters Glikk and Floob and more. After all this, the Narrator leaves Conrad back at the school’s blackboard where he found him, inventing his own new letter, A-Z erased and left long behind.

当叙述者将康拉德从虚构的土地拖到虚构的土地时，他向他展示了如果没有字母Glikk和Floob以及更多字母，它们会错过的难以置信的野兽和装置。 经历了所有这些之后，旁白者将康拉德放回学校的黑板上，在那里他找到了他，发明了自己的新字母，AZ被删除并留下了很长时间。

分享探索 (Sharing the exploration)

The other day, I looked in the rear-view mirror on the way to karate and asked my almost-five-year-old daughter if she knew what I was doing on my computer when I worked at home. She shrugged and said no. I decided it was time to tell her anyway.

前几天，我在空手道的路上看着后视镜，问我近五岁的女儿在家里工作时是否知道我在电脑上做什么。 她耸耸肩说不。 我决定还是该告诉她了。

I am in the midst of a major undertaking: learning to code from scratch, having not touched a computer in that way since I endured a QuickBasic class in middle school.

我正处于一项重要的工作中：从零开始学习编码，自从我在中学读完QuickBasic课以来就没有接触过计算机。

Starting with HTML5 and CSS, I am working my way through JavaScript, and plan to finish the rest of Free Code Camp’s Full Stack Development certification.

从HTML5和CSS开始，我将通过JavaScript进行工作，并计划完成其余的Free Code Camp的Full Stack Development认证。

By training, though, I am an historian and a Classicist, meaning that, though I have never directly made money with what I learned in school, I find pleasure in drawing together disparate pieces of information and seeing how they inform each other.

通过培训，我是一名历史学家和古典主义者 ，这意味着，尽管我从未从学校学到的东西直接赚钱，但我很高兴将各种不同的信息汇总在一起，并了解它们之间如何相互交流。

So when I read this story of a boy who has his whole world opened up past its previous boundaries, I had an instant flashback to the first time that I wrote a piece of basic HTML and refreshed my browser to see an incarnation of that code appear there as if by magic, somehow transformed from the obtuse, alchemical equation in my text editor to the beautiful (to me), clean text, images, and links that now sat before me in shining Chrome.

因此，当我读到这个故事，他的整个世界都超越了以前的界限时，我立即回想起了我第一次编写一段基本HTML并刷新浏览器以看到该代码的化身的情况。在这里，仿佛被魔术般地从我的文本编辑器中的钝化，炼金术方程式转变为现在(闪闪发亮的Chrome)摆在我面前的漂亮的(对我来说)纯净的文本，图像和链接。

How sad it would have been, to have missed that moment, just because my world was never expanded beyond the everyday constraints of A-Z to the new, exotic letters of <a> and <div>. And then, how could I not think of my two young daughters and want to give them the power, as early as possible, to write their own thoughts and bring their own ideas into the world?

错过那一刻，只是因为我的世界从未扩展到AZ的日常限制之外，而变成了<a>和<div>的新奇异字母，这真是太可悲了。 然后，我怎能不想到我的两个小女儿，并希望尽快赋予他们写自己的想法并将自己的想法带入世界的权力？

I sat down and read them On Beyond Zebra on a rainy afternoon in June. We had gotten it from the library on a whim, since we had already read through most of the Seuss canon, because as a parent, most children’s books are honestly not that fun to read, but the good Doctor’s are.

我坐下来在六月下雨的下午在斑马线上阅读它们。 因为我们已经通读了大部分的《苏斯经典》，所以我们心血来潮地把它拿了下来，因为作为父母，大多数儿童读物实际上并不是那么有趣，而是好医生的读物。

As we made our way through, enjoying the wordplay, rhythm, and meter (me) and striking illustrations (my daughters), I began to see a razor sharp argument for teaching children that there are always new fields of study and new worlds that lie beyond their current knowledge. And that is when I made the connection to code.

当我们经历文字游戏，节奏和节拍(我)以及醒目的插图(我的女儿)的过程中时，我开始看到一个尖锐的论点，教孩子们总是存在着新的研究领域和新世界超出了他们目前的知识范围。 那就是我与代码建立连接的时候。

As our children grow and technology becomes increasingly unavoidable, it becomes essential to ensure that they inherit the digital world with open eyes and full understanding. They must not only understand on an intellectual level that they can push the envelope forward into unexplored territories, but also on a practical level know how to use the technologies that make this possible.

随着我们的孩子的成长以及越来越不可避免的技术，确保他们以开放的眼光和充分的理解来继承数字世界变得至关重要。 他们不仅必须在知识上理解他们可以将信封推向未开发的领域，而且必须在实践上知道如何使用使之成为现实的技术。

The danger comes when they approach technology simply as magic — not as a complicated, incredible ecosystem that is driven by the interplay of hardware and software. If we can stave off the lazy assumption of magic, our children can live more productive, interconnected, and ultimately, safer lives.

当他们将技术简单地视为魔术，而不是由硬件和软件的相互作用所驱动的复杂而令人难以置信的生态系统时，危险就来了。 如果我们能够避免懒惰的魔术假设，那么我们的孩子可以过上更有生产力，相互联系的生活，并最终获得更安全的生活。

谈话 (The talk)

“Well, would you like to know what I’m doing?”

“好吧，你想知道我在做什么吗？”

“Sure.”

“当然。”

“You know when we read the Fancy Nancy books, and there is one person who writes the words that we read and one person who draws the pictures that we look at?”

“你知道我们读《 南希幻想小说 》的时候，有一个人写我们所读的单词，而有一个人画我们所看到的图画吗？”

“Yeah.”

“是的。”

“You know those apps that you play on my phone or mommy’s phone? Or on an iPad? Like Toca House?”

“您知道您在我的手机或妈妈的手机上播放的那些应用吗？ 还是在iPad上？ 喜欢Toca House吗？”

“Yup.”

“对。”

“Well, it’s a similar idea. There are people who draw all the pictures you see and touch, but then there are also people who write the languages that make those pictures move, or something happen when you touch the screen. And that’s what I’m doing. I’m not really even working yet, it’s more like I’m in school, learning those languages so I can write apps like that.”

“嗯，这是一个类似的想法。 有些人绘制了您看到并触摸的所有图片，但也有人编写了使这些图片移动或在您触摸屏幕时发生某些事情的语言。 这就是我正在做的。 我什至还没有工作，这就像我在学校学习这些语言，所以我可以编写类似的应用程序。”

Silence.

安静。

“Does that make sense?”

“那有意义吗？”

“Yes. Can I have a pretzel?”

“是。 我可以吃椒盐脆饼吗？”

“Yes, but only one, it’s almost time for dinner.”

“是的，但是只有一个，差不多要吃饭了。”

For an almost-five-year-old, I’ll count that as a win.

对于一个将近五岁的孩子，我将其视为一次胜利。

学习(和教学)新素养 (Learning (and teaching) the new literacy)

Coding is the new literacy. Software is seeping into every corner of our lives — often much faster than we as a culture can appreciate. The way that we communicate with machines, and the way those machines connect us to other people, is becoming increasingly vital.

编码是新的素养 。 软件正在渗透到我们生活的每个角落–通常比我们作为一种文化所欣赏的速度要快得多。 我们与机器进行通信的方式以及这些机器将我们与其他人联系的方式变得越来越重要。

There have been initiatives to help our children come through the education system having a better understanding of the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) disciplines, and many universities have worked to expand those departments, sometimes at the expense of other “less profitable” ones.

已经采取了一些举措来帮助我们的孩子通过对STEM (科学技术工程和数学)学科有更好理解的教育系统，许多大学已经努力扩大了这些系，有时以牺牲其他“利润较低”的系为代价。

I find the hubris in the “technology-first” movement terrifying, as it could mean a loss of the culture that has led us to where we are today. And this is where I found inspiration in a children’s book from 1955.

我发现“技术至上”运动中的傲慢感令人恐惧，因为这可能意味着一种文化的丧失，这种文化使我们走向了今天。 这就是我从1955年的一本儿童读物中找到灵感的地方。

The beauty of children’s literature is its simplicity. At their best, children’s books read like good code. They take a concept, an idea, an entire worldview, and they present it in a way that is clean and clear and simple.

儿童文学的美在于它的简单。 最好的情况是，儿童读物读起来像是好的代码。 他们采用一个概念，一个想法和整个世界观，并以一种干净，清晰，简单的方式来呈现它。

And much of that beauty is how, within a constrained vocabulary, those ideas shine through and spark something in every mind — whether young or old — and inspire comprehension and creativity.

绝大部分美是如何在一个受限制的词汇范围内使这些想法闪耀并激发每个人(无论年龄大小)中的某些事物，并激发理解力和创造力的。

This is where our children need to understand that with code, as with the “everyday” letters of A-Z, they can create any world in their imagination. They can solve any problem, and enact their wills upon the world in breathtaking way.

这是我们的孩子需要通过代码来理解的地方，就像AZ的“日常”字母一样，他们可以在想象中创造任何世界。 他们可以解决任何问题，并以惊人的方式在世界上表达自己的意愿。

Software serves as the raw material of the future. Creativity will shape it into something that isn’t just functional, but beautiful. Thus, the liberal arts are a key component for helping children grow up to be healthy, sane members of society who can engage culture and society as intelligently as they engage problem solving, and the next wave of technology that stands poised to wash over us.

软件是未来的原材料。 创造力会将其塑造成不仅功能实用而且美观的产品。 因此，文科是帮助儿童成长为健康，理智的社会成员的关键组成部分，他们可以在解决问题时聪明地参与文化和社会活动，而下一波技术也有望席卷我们。

不要在Z停下来 (Don’t stop at Z)

I haven’t yet started a follow-up to the conversation with my daughter, but I know now that continuing to educate her and her sister on what is happening when I’m on my computer with those funny symbols and words is going to be as important as any language. In the meantime, I will continue to read them as many Dr. Seuss and other books as I can, to ensure that when they start interacting with technology, they have the intellect and vocabulary to understand it.

我尚未开始跟女儿进行对话，但是我现在知道，继续教育她和她的妹妹，当我在计算机上使用那些有趣的符号和文字时会发生什么与任何语言一样重要。 同时，我将继续阅读尽可能多的Seuss博士和其他书籍，以确保当他们开始与技术互动时，他们拥有理解它的知识和词汇。

While the narrator never looks down on Conrad for learning the alphabet, he’s clear in his astonishment that Conrad would have thought it acceptable to stop at “Z.” And so, the book and the subsequent conversation with my daughter became the inspiration for this article, and also for my new blog “On Beyond Z”which will focus on providing resources to help expose children to the worlds beyond our basic alphabet.

尽管叙述者从未看过康拉德学习字母表，但他惊讶地发现，康拉德本以为可以停在“ Z”上。 因此，这本书以及随后与女儿的对话成为了本文的灵感，也成为了我的新博客“ On Beyond Z”的灵感，该博客的重点是提供资源，帮助儿童超越基本字母的世界。

I aim to be a resource for parents and educators to help children find their way through this brave new world, so that the coming generations will be the first where significant portions of the population will grow up knowing the basics of programming as well as all of the cultural touchstones that shape our society.

我的目标是成为父母和教育者的资源，以帮助孩子们在这个勇敢的新世界中找到自己的出路，以便子孙后代将成为第一批人口的一大部分，他们将了解编程的基本知识以及所有塑造我们社会的文化试金石。

And, even if technology wasn’t what he had in mind, Dr. Seuss was an advocate for helping children break out of the bounds of the A-Z alphabet and find their own way into the future.

而且，即使不是他想念的技术，苏斯博士还是一位倡导者，致力于帮助孩子们突破AZ字母的界限，找到自己的未来之路。

What else is education for, if not to expand the mind to new possibilities, across all spectra?

如果不将思想扩展到所有领域，教育还有什么用？

As Dr. Seuss says:

正如苏斯博士所说：

“I led him around and I tried hard to show

“我带领他到处走，我努力展示

There are things beyond Z that most people don’t know.

大多数人都不知道Z以外的东西。

I took him past Zebra. As far as I could.

我带他过去斑马。 据我所能。

And I think, perhaps, maybe I did him some good…”

我想，也许，也许我为他做了一些好事……”

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如果您喜欢此设置，请通过单击❤️进行收藏并在下面进行推荐！ 谢谢，每周检查一次以获取更多帖子。

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-danger-of-stopping-at-z-c28fbd702e0b/