I am a new teacher of Computer Science at my high school. As this is my first year teaching Java, I am forever searching the internet for just the "right" thing to help open the doors of understanding to my students. A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to somehow come across Don't fear the OOP! that your son wrote. I loved it. I knew my students that soon would be approaching the classes/methods section would love it. I knew it would open doors for them in a realm that is difficult at best to understand.
Yesterday, I used your son's material in my classroom (I changed "whisky" to "soda" and "drunkenness" to levels of "having to go to the bathroom" to keep it high school appropriate). My kids (whose mean age is 16) loved it. I watched as student by student anticipated what was coming next. I watched as they were really grasping binders (classes) and chapters (subclasses) and methods, all the while laughing and enjoying class.
Today I wanted to look up the address of the author and thank them for what they did, and for making it public for others to read and learn. I was shocked to see that a young man with the world ahead of him was no longer in this world. What a great person your son seemed to be.
Since I cannot thank him, the next best thing I can do is thank you. Thank you for allowing your son's material to be public so that others can continue to learn from him. I wish I could have met your son.
Sincerely,
Gale Freed (January 9, 2008)
APCS1, CS1, and BIMM
Cinco Ranch High School
Katy Independent School District