> I think its a good move but it isn't new. I think UC Berkeley moved the first CS class for CS/EECS majors to functional concepts and Scheme in 1989 and MIT even earlier, though the latter abandoned it later.

Yeah, but those aren't really the same reasons CMU is switching over. Scheme was historically taught because it offers the opportunity to teach computer science, as opposed to merely teaching programming. Most freshman "CS" courses are oriented around the latter.

The shift into Java/Python/$OOP_LANGUAGE was precipitated by the demands of the real world (eg, the job market). CMU is leading the pack in that respect -- it just so happens that FP is a better fit for the type of work their students will need to do, given the growth of multicore and distributed systems.

OOP has its place, but it is far from a panacea. I'm glad to see at least one school isn't hammering that into freshmen anymore.