What's academia's obsession with Java?

AP Computer Science is my easy course. No kidding.

See, I've had some computer programming experience before. I learned TiBasic for the calculator to do my 8th grade geometry homework in about 30 seconds. I learned some basic Python over the summer, and took a look at some C++ at one time or another.

It got me thinking about why schools (or the AP curriculum, specifically), and more and more colleges, usually teach Java as their primary programming language. I mean, it was the Big Thing™ in programming a few years ago, but is no longer hyped up so much. In the real world, a knowledge of Java is not as useful as, say, C++.

A common argument is that Java is taught as a "beginner's" language, because the references and pointers of C++ can be a bis-nitch. But the syntax of Java is just as bad as C++, if not worse. There's a lot of "just do this now, it'll be explained to you later" going on in my Computer Science class. (Not exactly easy to explain "public static void main(String[] args) {}" to someone without programming experience.)

If that's the whole reason, why couldn't you just teach Python first, and then graduate to C++? With Python, the syntax is much simpler, and you don't even have to compile the code. (No wasting time figuring out that your code won't work becuase you missed a semicolon. Man, that would save me time in class, not having to debug everyone else's code.) Heck, it even teaches good programming habits, such as using indents meaningfully.

I suppose this shows you just how much influence the College Board (makers of the AP curriculum) have, for better or for worse. (Of course, there are plenty of upsides to having a standardized national collegiate curriculum for high schools, just not in computer science.)

In the end, I guess you have to cut acedemia some slack on their choice of programming language. It's really hard to change standards, so when the College Board adopted Java, it's not an easy thing to change their minds.

Sorry if this post was too technical. Hey, at least I'm not (directly) complaining about school!