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Stories aren’t just collections of events thrown together in some order.
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They’re messages, feelings, and ideas conveyed in the form of a narrative, coming together to form a holistic, immersive experience.
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Stories play a crucial foundational role in society. They convey who we are, what we do, and why we do it.
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They express what we believe in, and nowhere is this more evident than in stories for children.
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Stories are one of the major ways we teach children how the world works, what society expects from them, and what right and wrong look like.
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Here’s one particularly blatant example of the messages in a children’s book. This comes from the book Madeline, which describes twelve little girls in two straight lines taking their daily stroll around the town. It states that they smiled at the good and frowned at the bad.
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There are a lot of assumptions here about what good and bad look like. Good is depicted as a person of noble birth, wealthy and parading around on a finely decorated steed. Bad is a thief with a short and oddly long nose, a jutting chin, and perhaps intended to look not conventionally attractive, who wears proper clothes while running away from a police officer.
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Some of these assumptions we would probably agree with; for example, we don't want to teach kids to steal. However, many of the implicit messages on these pages are questionable, particularly those connecting morality to wealth or attractiveness.
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We have to be really careful about the stories we tell and the messages we pass on in these narratives. So, why is all of this relevant to us today at RailsConf 2019? I think we stand at a very interesting juncture in the history of programming.
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There’s a constant influx of new programmers from various backgrounds and ages into our community. We need to think about the stories we are telling them, the messages they receive, and the expectations we are setting regarding how society works and how it will treat them.
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It’s not just the programming community in general; it’s also the Ruby community and even more narrowly, the Rails community. What are the stories we are telling our children?
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Before we begin to answer that question, let’s take a step back to consider the relationship between literature and the society that creates and consumes it.
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We could talk about English children’s literature, which many of you might be familiar with, but there are two problems with that discussion. The first problem is that we already covered this topic yesterday, so I believe we’ve had our fill.
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The second, more serious problem is that we are often blind to the assumptions that are present in our own literature and culture. To gain different perspectives, we need to look at other societies and groups of people. This will help us understand the connections between their societal structures and their literature.
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Today, I would like to discuss the literature of Israel. I chose this topic because it is familiar to me, but you may wonder why all of you should have an interest in it.
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The truth is, once we understand a bit more about the history of the Hebrew language and of Israel, we will see significant parallels between that society and the programming community. This is actually a very instructive example.
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The story begins with a child named Itamar Ben IV. He lived at the very end of the 19th century, but his story actually starts around 2,500 years earlier, in the sixth century before the Common Era.
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At that time, the Jewish people were primarily living in what we now call the State of Israel. The Babylonians expanded their empire, conquered the area, ransacked Jerusalem, and exiled almost the entire Jewish population to Babylon. A few decades later, some Jews were allowed to return, and a few hundred thousand did, but the vast majority remained where they had settled, having established lives there.
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Even those who returned to rebuild Israel did not last forever, as the Romans came along a few centuries later. We are now in the year 70 in the Common Era. The Romans killed many people, ransacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and carted many Jews off to Rome.
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They also made life extremely difficult for those who remained, prompting many Jews to scatter, fleeing persecution and challenging lives. Some traveled to join existing communities in Persia and Babylonia, while others made their way south toward Egypt and then to various areas in North Africa.
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What happens when you take a group of people out of their context and place them elsewhere in the world? Well, they still need to survive, make a living, and participate in the local marketplace. So, they had to learn the relevant languages and cultures.
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With each succeeding generation, children tend to learn the local language more fluently than the language of their parents. By the end of the second century of the Common Era, the last native Hebrew speaker was born.
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Hebrew became a dead language, though it continued to be used in scholarship, poetry, and communication between communities. However, it was not used in daily life. In the 19th century, Eliezer ben-yehuda sought to change this.
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He did many things in that regard: he published a Hebrew language newspaper and founded the Society that later became the Academy of the Hebrew Language, which continues to make decisions about syntax, grammar, and new words. Additionally, he started a quieter revolution.
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Together with his wife, Glenda, they chose to raise their son as the first native Hebrew speaker in 1,700 years. Others followed suit, and schools were eventually established where Hebrew was the native language of instruction.
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Today, there are millions of native Hebrew speakers, many living in Israel and some in other parts of the world. However, at the beginning, Itamar and the first native Hebrew speakers were missing a lot of cultural infrastructure.
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A whole culture had to be created, including everything from children's books to novels and textbooks. Music with Hebrew lyrics was required, as well as poetry in a style appropriate for contemporary literacy.
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There needed to be entertainment, theater, movies, and television—everything needed to be invented from scratch. I grew up in the U.S., singing songs like 'Jack and Jill' and 'London Bridge is Falling Down,' classics that have lasted for centuries. As I got older, I delved into Shakespeare and Chaucer, both parts of a long tradition of English literature. Hebrew literature didn’t have that luxury.
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It underwent a brief but intense burst of creativity over roughly 60 years, where its cultural works were developed largely from scratch.
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If we consider professional communities, medicine has existed since the dawn of humanity. Doctors take oaths from ancient Greece—there’s a long history of evolution and improvement. We are not in that same position in programming.
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Our community is relatively young in comparison to Hebrew culture. How long have there been communities of programmers? The languages and frameworks that exist right now might feel like they have endured forever in internet time, but when we take a broader perspective, we see that we are at the very beginning of our evolution as a community.
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We have created different forms of media to communicate with one another, from platforms for asking questions to places for writing and sharing code, as well as for learning new skills. There are also resources for commenting on and discussing news in our community.
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While the forms of media may differ, the stakes remain the same. For Hebrew speakers, a brief historical period had a massive impact on everything that came afterward. The same is true for our community—what we create and share now will shape the future of programming for generations.
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So, let’s explore some literature. The first book we will look at is called 'A Tale of Five Balloons,' or 'Masa Baja' by Miriam Roth. Roth was a preschool teacher with a master’s in education and a professor of children’s literature, authoring nine academic works related to education.
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In 1974, at 64 years of age, she wrote her first of 24 children’s books and continued to publish about one book a year until she passed away in her 90s. It's remarkable to note that she began her most notable work at an age when most people consider retirement.
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This book is quite popular in Israel, just as in America, where college professors might write essays or math problems using references from popular culture.
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In Israel, it is not unusual for the children's names from this book to appear. I have analyzed the ratio of copies sold to the number of households in Israel. When compared to a popular American children’s book like 'The Cat in the Hat,' it seems this book is more than twice as popular.
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The book opens with a mother returning home with strings attached to balloons for her daughter and her friends. Each balloon is a different color, and all the children gather their balloons to pursue an adventure.
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Each balloon has its story. While the green balloon is tossed merrily by its owner, it eventually lands in a rosebush, pricked by a thorn, leading to a pop. The narrator comforts the child, reassuring them they will get another balloon.
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As they continue, they encounter the father of a child with a red balloon, who is happy to see his child and blows the balloon up even bigger, leading to another pop. Similarly, they meet a cat that takes another child’s balloon, which eventually pops as well.
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The pattern continues: as each child's balloon pops, the narrator reassures them to not feel too bad. Eventually, the last balloon, red, is swept away by the wind. Unlike the others, this child looks up, waves, and says goodbye to the balloon as it flies into the sky.
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This ending provokes thoughts about loss and control various children might face in their lives, and it is a surprisingly somber conclusion for a popular children's book.
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When I first read this book, I was shocked by its popularity, as it contains such a sad ending—no catharsis or happy resolution. It bothered me to see children carrying around merchandise featuring the joyful illustrations but entirely omitting the final consequences of losing their balloons.
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This led me to research why it resonates so strongly with children. To provide some context about myself, I’m Arielle Kaplan, a backend developer at Cloud Neri.
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I've lived in Israel for four years and this was actually the first Hebrew book I purchased for my children. As I reflected on my experiences, I realized the importance of understanding the stories children encounter, especially in a society where I work and where I’m raising kids.
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It’s my job to guide them through their navigation of society, and it’s these books that often prompt my exploration of the broader cultural meanings and implications.
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Now, transitioning into a content warning, to prepare you, we will discuss some serious topics such as war, injury, and death.
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We will also touch upon themes of abuse, harassment, discrimination, and racism. If you're not in the mood to engage with such themes today, feel free to take a break or exit and come back when you're ready.
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However, if you wish to continue, let’s discuss Israeli history. Our goal is not to present a comprehensive view, but to understand what it was like for children living through the turbulent times.
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The book we previously mentioned was published in 1974, so let’s go back one year to 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. Also known as the Ramadan War, this was a coordinated attack from Egypt and Syria against Israel.
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Israel was caught off-guard due to its overconfidence, which left it underprepared. As you might expect, the timing of the attack, taking place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, had a massive impact both spiritually and logistically.
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On this particular day, many Jews engage in religious observance; they are often not in peak physical condition for warfare.
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Many soldiers had returned home for the holiday, leaving defensive posts understaffed; at one point, fewer than 500 soldiers were tasked with holding back the advancing Egyptian army.
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The fighting lasted for about a month and took a heavy emotional toll on the Israelis, which also impacted children. Following this traumatic experience, they resorted to books like 'A Tale of Five Balloons' to process their grief.
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Miriam Roth’s goal was to bring children back and forth between sadness and happiness, helping them learn about overcoming sorrow. This book conveys the importance of acknowledging feelings and healthily dealing with grief as we learn to let go of things we cherish.
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I believe this book is proof that if we want to understand a society, we should pay attention to the stories they provide for their children. In the Ruby community, what stories are shaping our culture, and where do they originate?
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Newcomers engage with our community in various ways, through books, tutorials, boot camps, and workshops. They hear stories from others in the community that aim to motivate and inspire.
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These narratives often reflect our culture, infused with humor, kindness, curiosity, and pragmatism. I believe we have a significant and largely healthy culture, but we always need room for improvement.
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To illustrate this, let's consider another story: 'Kaspian the Little Fish' by Paul Corps, published in 1990. Corps is well-known for his artwork and illustrations, and he ventured into children's literature, creating captivating stories.
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The story follows Kaspian, who is part of a school of shimmering silver fish. While he loves his large family, he also enjoys exploring the world on his own. In doing so, he encounters a great eye filled with sadness belonging to a whale.
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The whale reveals it has lost its parents and requests help. Kaspian, showing empathy and his resourcefulness, gathers his friends and together, they find the whale's parents, resulting in a joyful reunion.
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This recounts the common childhood fear of abandonment, addressing a theme that resonates deeply with children. Unlike some other literature where characters may be dismissive, the whale finds support from Kaspian and his friends.
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The difference between this story and others, such as 'Are You My Mother?' where the protagonist has a more challenging, isolating adventure, lies in the positive support system offered within 'Kaspian the Little Fish.'
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Stories carry messages, whether intentionally or not, and they shape the world around us. As a community, we should reflect critically on the narratives we share and the values we promote.
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In English literature, we see many impactful messages conveyed through works by authors such as Dr. Seuss, which address important social issues. However, some of his stories contain troubling undertones.
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For instance, 'The Cat in the Hat' implies a laissez-faire attitude towards troublesome behavior while also showcasing poor action responses to chaotic circumstances. This narrative could inadvertently convey the idea that inappropriate behavior is acceptable.
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Moreover, some characters seem endlessly persistent to the extent that their actions intersect with themes of harassment, which is not the message we wish to impart.
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In our own communities, we experience similar issues reflected through storytelling. We must take mindful steps towards improvement. Please recall the example of Liz Serta, who recognized the male-centric naming convention in 'Rails for Zombies.'
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Through conversations, she encouraged a more balanced representation of genders in code examples, ultimately reshaping the narrative to become more inclusive. This signals an effort to change the story being told.
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Avidly, we should remain aware of our narratives, striving to improve upon them. One more great example of a narrative offering hope appears in a children’s book published in 1948 by Leah Goldberg.
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Her story, 'The Flat for Rent,' addresses various characters who represent different societal challenges and reveals their perspectives while making them relatable to children.
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Each character prominently illustrates conflicting perspectives on societal values and responsibilities. Understanding this helps uncover underlying societal tensions relevant to contemporary culture.
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Goldberg's message implies that in creating our own space as a society, we should be inclusive and accept differences among communities. These values are transformative.
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We need to test our boundaries regarding which types of behavior we deem appropriate. Perceptions can change over time, yet as a community, we must consistently define our boundaries.
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Ultimately, Leah Goldberg sought to foster connections and ensure that children learned these essential societal lessons through literature. Her stories remind us of the profound effect stories have on shaping values.
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As programmers, we too create narratives to express our cultural values. The media we generate shapes the understanding of our community for newcomers.
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For instance, in our discussions about our community's principles and ethics, we must pay attention to the messages we are expressing through both spoken and written words.
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To make meaningful changes, we need to provide helpful stories that facilitate improvement and encourage learning within our community, echoing the importance of stories that speak for justice.
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As we engage with our peers, we must focus on sharing uplifting tales and heroic efforts of collaboration and connection. One notable achievement was aimed at enhancing inclusiveness during the Rails community's imagery revision.
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I approached DHH and suggested enhancing the imagery in Rails apps to better reflect our diverse community, and together, we worked towards a more inclusive representation.
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When changes in perspective succeed, they enable a sense of belonging, ensuring that everyone feels included in the community.
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As we navigate these cultural transitions, we should amplify the voices of others within our community, thereby broadening perspectives.
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Take, for example, Stephanie Hurlburt, who invited people to share non-violent gaming experiences. By amplifying the stories of others, we spread compelling narratives that inspire positive action.
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While we may not all have thousands of followers, we all have the capacity to share stories that matter with those we encounter in our personal and professional lives.
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Stories have an incredible staying power. Even the most detrimental messages endure over time, creating challenges for idea propagation. Yet through storytelling, we can elevate beautiful narratives alongside them.
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For example, in stark contrast to the negative messages in programming communities, it’s possible to curate respected spaces that foster healthy conversations.
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This could be exemplified through actions taken by diverse communities, focusing on kindness and understanding as a hallmark of a true learning environment, demonstrating respect in addressing questions.
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Meanwhile, active discussions can nurture a culture that embraces inquiry. Favorable environments are cultivated through communal efforts to establish supportive interactions.
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Lastly, addressing the overwork culture espoused by prominent figures sheds light on the unnegotiable necessity of work-life balance.
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As I shared my experiences from Cloud Neri, I hope to inspire a conversation around understanding the value of balance and inclusivity within tech spaces.
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This is certainly a conversation worth having, and the journey begins with us advocating for ourselves and one another.
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In closing, I encourage all of you to share stories that reflect the values we wish to see, nurturing our community through empathy and understanding.
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Stories shape our future, so let’s share the narratives that will cultivate a better programming community for our children.
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Thank you.
