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I would argue Smalltalk is a far superior language to teach the essence of OOP. Students in Smalltalk will be writing programs in the first hour while their C++ counterparts will still be struggling to understand #includes.

To quote Alan Kay: Actually I made up the term "object-oriented", and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.

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I am definitely biased, but I think the includes are important and are almost part of the lesson. Teach someone how to write their own containers and classes, then show them that there is a library they can easily access that does a much better job than they ever will and just how easy it is to use.

And while there are better languages from an educational standpoint, having something that is usable/"real" is quite valuable.

But I definitely approach things from a more practical/industry oriented perspective. so grain of salt.

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