[ALACPP] Advice for a teacher, please

["Scott M. Anderson" <scottmanderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As long as Jon asked how the group could be of use to me, I'd like to 
pick the brain of anyone whose interested in responding.

The Computer Science Program at the private school where I now teach is 
geared toward preparing students for the AP Computer Science Exam, which 
is heavy on C++, and is adding Java. The school is also interested in 
having them leave with exceptional real-world programming skills whether 
or not they go on to study Computer Science at college.

Students who wish to embark on this endeavor spend their senior year 
learning advanced C++ techniques and Java.
This is preceded by a year of more basic C++ techniques.
The beginning C++ course in turn (and this where we get to the actual 
question) is preceded by a course in C, whose express purpose in life is 
to allow the students to get "under the hood" of C++ once they begin 
studying it, to really understand what's going on, and emerge capable of 
writing really efficient C++ code that works with the system.

We are about to enter discussions for curriculum changes, and my gut 
feeling is that the C class should go, with a little bit of C being 
incorporated into one of the other courses.  It's 45 minutes a day, five 
days a week, for a full 10 months. My opinion is that this is entirely 
too much C for a curriculum in which the students are destined to move 
away from it. One thing on my side is that most of the students who took 
the C course last year (before I started working there) did not sign up 
for the more advanced course, but I would like more.

I personally learned C++ from the get-go about 8 years ago when I began 
to study object-oriented programming, picking up some C along the way 
over the years, and I feel fine about it.

However, I think I probably have the least industry experience of anyone 
on this list, so I'd like your expert input:

How much C do you really need to get the most out of C++?

Thanks!

Scott Anderson



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