While it doesn't detract from the point of your post, the behavior of private is correct and intended. If you wish to override an internal method of a class in

While it doesn't detract from the point of your post, the behavior of private is correct and intended. If you wish to override an internal method of a class in PHP, like Java, you must declare it protected, not private. This is the difference between private (completely internal, not inherited) and protected (internal, but inherited by subclasses).