# How to Hello World

After teaching kids for a while, I've been a little troubled on what is the best way to teach them *hello world* in Python without shortcutting on some fundamentals.

The common way is:

```python
print("hello world")
```

Now, I would like to suggest the following instead (please stay with me):

```python
output = "hello world"
print(output)
```

I noticed that for the most part it does not click that `print()` is a function that takes in something (a string) and then prints this out on the screen. And they get to struggle a little down the line when we introduce other forms of `print` like `print("my name is " + name)` or even worse, "magical" ones like, `print("my name is", age)`.

I submit that it is important to separate these concepts so that from the get-go, they know that:

1. We have *magical things* (abstractions, of course no need to start dropping big names like these ones) called *functions.* And this specifically are in-built functions, though at a later stage we will write our own.
    
2. A function is called by adding the `()` on to the name of the function. In between the parentheses, we put *things* that the function takes. Then the function will do something.
    
3. In our case, that function is `print` and it is called by taking a string `output` which has a value of `"hello world"`. Shortly after, in a later lesson, we will cover in detail what really these *things* are (*variables*).
    

What I have learnt to do is to make sure that, in any given lesson, I only introduce 3 new terms (jargon) **at most**. For instance in this *hello world* example, we could introduce only these 3 jargons: `function`, `variable`, `string`. Actually these 3 are quite loaded, you can even try cut down if possible.

Lastly, it's very important for them to know that in between the `"` (string value), it can be anything. There's nothing special about `"hello world"`, it's just tradition. Actually have them do multiple prints with various languages e.g. `"jambo dunia"`, `"habari zenu"`, `"jambo bwana"`, `"Bonjour le monde"`. They learn better with repetition.

Lastly, there is no really the best way of doing it, for some students, things click a few lessons down the line. It's very important to always go back and review from the beginning especially in light with the new details they have learnt. For instance after covering a lesson on *functions,* you could go back and dissect `print("hello world")` in detail now.

> PS. Check here where I try to make a case with Chat GPT on this approach - [https://chat.openai.com/share/9f53549f-858b-4224-8160-a5e87b37f0f0](https://chat.openai.com/share/9f53549f-858b-4224-8160-a5e87b37f0f0)

\_\_  
*You can check out our kids coding programme at*[**lkc.code**](https://lkc.codes)