[simondotau]

> as a stepping stone, and maybe as a useful tool to help people understand SQL itself.

But that is not what ORMs are. They teach bad habits that make SQL harder to understand, not easier, because the power of SQL depends on good data modelling.

Perhaps the worst habit is treating the database as subservient to the application code. This assumption comes naturally to many programmers. In most programming contexts, file formats, wire protocols, and internal representations are defined by the code that consumes them. That's fine in some cases.

But in a data-centric application, the relationship should be reversed. Before writing a single line of application code, you should understand the domain model and design a schema that represents it well. The database is not just a persistence layer for objects. It is the system of record, and its structure should reflect the shape, constraints, and relationships of the real-world data. Everything else should be built to conform to it.

[nodamage]

I mean there are plenty of projects that don't fit this description, where the database is just a persistence layer for your objects and the database should be subservient to application code.