In high school AP Computer Science uses Java (20 years ago when I was in high school, they were just transitioning off of C++). You can see what the earliest pr

In high school AP Computer Science uses Java (20 years ago when I was in high school, they were just transitioning off of C++). You can see what the earliest programmers are being taught here: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-computer-science-a-course-a-glance.pdf?course=ap-computer-science-a https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-computer-science-a... Edit: When I was in HS, the AP CS courses (now there is only on since the second one was discontinued) used the "Marin Biology Case Study" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Computer_Science_A#Marine_Biology_case_study_(2000-2007) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Computer_Science_A#Marine_B... ). It has apparently been replaced with the "GridWorld" similar case study. I think it highlights one of the issues of OOP: a fascination with modeling, or perhaps over-modeling, the real world. Throughout the course you are expected to develop deep knowledge of a myriad of Fish and Fish Tank-related classes, which while perhaps an accurate preview into what working in an environment like Java is like, is not something that in my opinion succeeds in either exciting most students nor teaching them the "fundamentals" of algorithms and such. I think it can very much feel like a very complex and convoluted exercise in meeting the abstract goals of "categorizing" the world. Ironically, the insistence on modeling the world makes it feel frivolous and disconnected from any practical use -- which is incredibly sad since IMO CS could be the most practical math/science course you take. In my experience when you show kids the cool things that they can get computers to do for them, it can be more inspiring -- such problems do not lend themselves well to formalized class hierarchy drawing though.