I totally agree that OOP shouldn't be forced upon students, but teachers should still provide insight onto it as it simplifies many complex problems by boiling down hundreds of functions into a few systems that perform certain tasks.

I notice that many tutors, online tutorial writers and self-proclaimed experts, always seem to use the same standardized method of teaching to everyone.

Everyone learns differently, obviously, so you can't expect everyone to learn along the lines of the same teaching strategies. I have come across several tutorials and not only do they teach using the same typical lines that the majority use, they also highly enforce OOP(object-oriented programming)paradigms unto their students/learners.

I, myself, personally don't use or recommend OOP to anyone and I have a decent programming background in Assembly languages, C++, Javascript and Python.

I just feel as if the molding teaching strategies are the reason why so many drop and quit programming. You can't expect everyone to just "accept it that way." Some people need to see it their own way and learn how to shape things onward from there as realistically as possible.

What I'm trying to say is that everyone and every aspect of programming should not be passed on so identically among teaching. Some lines should be followed, such as basic programming language, object and/or bytecode, Boolean logic, data types, computer science, etc.

But beyond that, like programming paradigms and such, should be the programmers free option rather than a media driven/industry driven tutor's "personal" choice.

Programming should be taught in a more "open" way, less in a more molded "tactical" way of explaining.

I believe that if most learned new ways that are not only more fun, easier and convenient all around from teachers rather than the standard learning mold which applies to many teaching strategies, many more programmers might succeed.

I dont think I could disagree with you more. Most tutorials do an absolute shit job of teaching OO programming and should do MORE of it, instead of more of this teaching C++ as a better C. Those that do teach OO need to do a much better job of it, as it is not one of those things that lends itself well to abstract concepts and example.

Like it or not, being that unique little snowflake will not get you hired; regardless of how well it may help you learn. Professional programmers work in teams and the overwhelming majority of professional teams code with OO concepts.

Education can certainly be done better, but you're focusing on the wrong things.

OK.



[size="1"]I'll add a little reply to avoid being a complete dick. OOP is a major part of programming in many, many of today's languages, and anyone seriously pursuing a career in software development should be very comfortable with it. Whether or not tutorials effectively teach proper programming and software design principles or not, is a separate question in and of itself. If you want quality, go to a good university or buy a well respected book. Of course you'll find crap tutorials on the internet. It's the internet. That aside, I am where I am today because of online programming resources, learning most of what I know from freely available resources on the Internet (thanks GameDev.net!). I certainly think they could be more effective in multiple aspects, but I don't consider them failures.

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[sup][color="#0000ff"][citation needed][/sup]

I don't see what your vendetta is against object-oriented programming. This is at least your second post bashing it with some kind of grudge, as if object-oriented programming shot your dog.

I have been a C++/game programming professor. It is not an easy subject to teach because it is not an easy subject to understand.
I utterly failed the statistics section of the Stanford AI class. Why? Not because it was taught poorly but because it is simply a difficult subject. If I spent longer on it, I would get good at it.
Same thing applies to programming.

People quit because they are quitters. Maybe they jumped in without realizing how difficult it is. Taking a difficult subject and trying to dumb it down and present them with only the most basic things that won't scare them away is doing more harm than good. They will be totally unprepared for the real world, but with less time to change to a new career.

The students actually loved my class and I didn't get any quitters. Not because I dumbed it down so they would be mislead as to how complex it really is, but because I just ran a fun class. I had energy, I told jokes, I showed YouTube movies, etc.
Yes, teachers can do a better job at teaching. Just not by leaving out discussions regarding object-oriented programming.


The fact is that C++ has a lot of features that were simply intended to improve organization.
Namespaces, encapsulation, etc. The concept of "objects" really helps to organize your code so that it represents the actual idea you had in your mind.
Object-oriented programming is simply much more organized and scalable than not.
I have seen you recommend globals to someone. You are in for a ride when your project starts to really get beefy.


L. Spiro