I’ve developed with JS for a few years, toying with vanilla JS (and doing some small bootcamp assignments/projects with it) but for actual projects I’ve used jQ

I’ve developed with JS for a few years, toying with vanilla JS (and doing some small bootcamp assignments/projects with it) but for actual projects I’ve used jQuery, Ember, React, etc. I feel like I was productive and there was little I “couldn’t” do without going too far off the rails. I know how to do an AJAX request, delegate an event listener, and update the DOM, all with vanilla JS. I guess it’s useful knowledge if you’re going to build a library/framework or hand-tune a critical part of your app, but honestly I have no desire to get too comfortable with low-level JavaScript. There’s too much weird syntax and too many gotchas, although ES6+ has improved things a little. Personal preferences aside, I have some experience as a programming tutor and think pushing people to learn plain JavaScript from the start is setting them up for frustration to the point that many will quit before ever becoming proficient. Also, I learned Python before I learned JavaScript, but actually started toying with Django before I understood even a decent chunk of Python syntax. Being able to build something less trivial than “Hello World” almost right away gives positive reinforcement and encourages people to keep learning. My advice for people starting out with any language is to ask around and see if there is a framework that is 1) popular and well-supported; 2) easy to learn; 3) will get you a lot of mileage and grow with you. In the case of JavaScript, that’s React. In the case of Python, that’s Django. I’m still fairly new to Swift, but SwiftUI seems like a great way to start out with the language. Before people can become programmers, you have to get them interested in programming.