I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but nobody really _learns_ good practices just by having somebody tell them. They might _use_ them, but _learning_ requires something more. It is important for programmers to think by themselves!
Getting beginners to experiment with their own code is a very natural way of teaching them what is good and what is bad, and why exactly it is good/bad - since they're the ones who'll have to maintain it.
Also, unrelated, but "having fun" is an amazing metric for good code. If some coding activity is boring as hell you're probably 1) on the wrong job or 2) using the wrong abstractions.
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I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but nobody really _learns_ good practices just by having somebody tell them. They might _use_ them, but _learning_ requires something more. It is important for programmers to think by themselves!
Getting beginners to experiment with their own code is a very natural way of teaching them what is good and what is bad, and why exactly it is good/bad - since they're the ones who'll have to maintain it.
Also, unrelated, but "having fun" is an amazing metric for good code. If some coding activity is boring as hell you're probably 1) on the wrong job or 2) using the wrong abstractions.