Beginning HTML and CSS

Although everyone does not need to learn to code for themselves, the basic understanding of what code is — how commands function, where different general languages originated from, and how code lays the foundation for all we see online today — is a necessity for today’s student body. Beyond this, the earlier students are exposed to code and directly taught how it functions, the better each student’s understanding of the online world will be.

When I was in middle school, one of our school directors would come into the classroom weekly and teach the older students how to create a website in HTML. After a couple of lessons, I decided that coding was not for me — it was confounding and I never received any direct help from our instructor. I then grew through middle and high school without so much as looking at a line of code. Code was an ethereal phenomena to me, a universal language. I despised coding yet admired those who knew how to code. It was only in freshman year of college that I learned how many coding languages exist, and in sophomore year I became more exposed to python 3.0 in a beginning computer science course (which I also did not enjoy). Before today, I could not tell you why or how the following CSS code changes the font and colors of body text in HTML files (or even how CSS code is capable of changing an HTML output without being in the same file).

body {

    font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 14px;
    color: black;
    background-color: #ffc;
    margin: 20px;
    padding: 0;

}

Even now coding does not appeal to me. Computers take instructions very seriously, they leave zero room for error. Some coding workspaces like python 3.0 are nice enough to tell you where you went wrong, but you have to figure out how you went wrong. As a ‘humanities person,’ I enjoy a little play in whatever I write; I feel like I am allowed to be wrong in some aspects of my work if I am convincing enough in others. This being said, I am strongly advocating for the general teaching of coding languages in modern schooling systems because I regret not knowing enough for today’s world. While some may argue that you do not need any coding experience to progress in today’s society, I have felt discouraged, lost and overwhelmed when trying to develop work of my own (such as previous websites or very simple games).

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<h1>What is My Greatest Concern?</h1>
<pre>
AI is inescapable at this point. Generative AI is my most immediate concern as a humanities scholar and a creative. In more and more working spaces, I shall be and I already am replaceable. I am not replaceable because I am inherently inferior, but because I am slow and costly. This is partly why Tim Berner-Lee's words stand out to me.

</pre>

</body>
</html>

“‘The Web will be a place where the whim of a human being and the reasoning of a machine coexist in an ideal, powerful mixture.'”

Tim Berners-Lee in Lucas, Julian. “Tim Berners-Lee Invented the World Wide Web. Now He Wants to Save It.” The New Yorker, September 29, 2025

As it stands, the ‘powerful mixture’ Berners-Lee refers to is being threatened. Just looking past the dead-internet theory for a moment, AI is replacing human creativity and whimsy both online and in the real world. I drive past billboards which are clearly prompt-generated and grit my teeth. The balance which Berners-Lee sought is interrupted by this advancement and I believe there are more people like me who are lost and unaware of how to help. We can work alongside AI in a balanced manner, but to do so we must understand where all of this rapid advancement originated from. Perhaps learning basic code may not fully help us understand language-learning models or quantum computing. However, the prospect of learning to create for oneself — to build small, independent websites, games, or other programs — may help in maintaining the balance between the human and the generated in this ever-online world.

My work-in-progress when learning with htmldog.