Invocations

Where to place the newer arts, and a few Advent notes.

“I have always taken it for granted that, just as my parents made sure that I could read and write, I would make sure that my kids could program computers. It is among the newer arts but also among the most essential, and ever more so by the day, encompassing everything from filmmaking to physics. Fluency with code would round out my children’s literacy—and keep them employable.”

So begins a recent essay by programmer James Somers for The New Yorker magazine. And ever since 2011 when my husband taught himself to code to keep up with a job that required it, we have felt the same. Introducing the languages, if not fluency, seemed like a sensible idea. Like learning to diagram sentences and identifying basic parts of speech in Latin and English, it would lend an underlying structure to a future creative potential. We signed the oldest(10 at the time) up for sessions with Code Combat, an online programming school that pairs one tutor with one student. Our oldest was matched with an undergraduate at UC Berkeley. They tutored in their spare time for extra money, and the one hour of exposure a week seemed to have a myriad of benefits for our child.

However as of last year, AI has vaulted over many of the language hurdles that were once a barrier to creation in the field. In the galaxy of human languages, the star of programming seems to have burned out far faster than Latin or Greek, by many centuries. As James tells it, humans can already describe, using words, what they want to the AI and it can build it for you, placing the endless semicolons and curly brackets in just the right spots.

So then, what’s the curious educator to do? Continue a basic introduction? Place it carefully in the line of “newer arts” that deserve attention and development, despite its waning utility? Is it the same as piano? Is it less than handwriting, but next to woodworking? Is it—possibly—as important as practicing drawing countries from memory? Certainly it’s not more important than reading history, helping with household chores, taking part in a community like a church, learning to sing with a group of humans, and discovering grounding reassuring things to do with one’s hands like baking, sewing, carving, drawing, making music…

The educator’s mind wonders.

The reader in me, the one who prioritizes reading aloud together above any other subject in our house including math (!) and science (!), is delighted to recognize that a sprawling understanding of words is the most powerful way to engage with with the building possibilities of ChatGPT. In a post from February 2023, Ethan Mollick articulates…

Consider that ChatGPT outputs are created by prompts invoking webs of tenuous connections, basically programs in prose form. And since the way that the AI makes these connections are not always clear, creating good prompts requires exploring the AI with language (here are some hints to get started in your explorations). Once discovered, new invocations are often kept secret to gain an advantage in a job, or else shared online through secretive chat groups.

[…]

AI isn’t magic, of course, but what this weirdness practically means is that these new tools, which are trained on vast swathes of humanity’s cultural heritage, can often best be wielded by people who have a knowledge of that heritage.

Ethan uses the word invocation a few times in that post about engaging with ChatGPT. I love that word (it reminds me of this startlingly poignant holiday book) and there was something revelatory about seeing it in that context of humans and machines creating together.

a podcast:🎄

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen this recommendation several times already but just to be certain…the Calm Christmas podcast. Can’t recommend it highly enough. It is such a gracious, lovely set of recordings. All her seasons are wonderful. You will find yourself noticing all sorts of details about the season around you, leaning in to the things you can savor, and seeking out what to simplify.

My very own St. Nicholas era

I took some time last week to pull all sorts of things out of the closet that no one was playing with. I took photos of everything, and emailed our homeschool group to offer items to be wrapped up again as gifts in their houses. While I was email-composing, the kids wandered past the pile and asked what I was doing. I explained, and they said “oh,” and that was all there was to it. Zero concerns, or claims of “But we need that!” I was thrilled we were all in agreement that these could happily move on. Now I have the items discretely bagged up, to go to their new homes. It’s a great feeling.

An Advent Read Aloud We Loved 

We read Jotham's Journey almost every evening in December last year. If we missed an evening, we caught up with two chapters the next day. Jotham is a shepherd’s son, born into a nomadic family in Palestine. Through a series of adventures, unexpected twists, and villains, he winds his way toward Bethlehem. I read one review that said "We were on the edge of our seats!" and as dramatic as it sounds, I agree. In particular I loved the characters—the adults and the children. The devotionals at the end of the chapter explain a historical element, and get to the point: God loves you.

I went back to order the next book in the series, and hope to pass our copy of Jotham on to another family. We’ll enjoy it again in a few years, once we don’t remember it quite so well. It is available on Amazon, I linked to the author’s website for your interest.

A Few Other Advent Favorite Things

✨ Last year I managed to order all gifts before the end of November and it was a wonderful feeling that entirely rewarded the effort. I’m hoping to do the same this year, just need one last night of focus this week.

✨ Checking holiday books out of the library.

✨ Putting out a box of candy bars for the delivery people, alongside a note. The kids get so much joy out of watching them take something.

✨ Sleeping under the Christmas tree the first night we bring it home.

✨ Remembering that the memories will often come from the simplest of things.

And a quote for you 

“What the world of tomorrow will be like is greatly dependent on the power of imagination in those who are learning to read today.”

and

“A childhood without books — that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.”

-Astrid Lindgren, author of Pippi Longstocking and the wonderful Noisy Village books.