Interesting, but one could go further with this: there still seems to be the assumption that learning OOP concepts is indispensable and necessary in the long ru

Interesting, but one could go further with this: there still seems to be the assumption that learning OOP concepts is indispensable and necessary in the long run. This may or may not be true depending on the application area, language and intent of the programmer. Some languages and frameworks make it impossible to get anything done unless you know how to subclass things; at the other extreme you've got Stephanov-inflected C++. Arguably you would have people learn at least a little more about algorithms and data structures of greater complexity before dropping the OO-hammer. I still have moments where mid-way into astronauting up a class hierarchy I realize that all of this could be done more clearly in 10 lines of STL/Boost (and yes, I'm aware of the problems of that style of coding, too).