Strings

Neatnik had to come with me to a couple of classes recently. Her school's Easter break never coincides with the college's spring break so this is a recurring situation. Usually I have her pack a backpack full of activities. This Easter recess, her choices included her Kindle,a hardcover copy of Inkheartand a box of crayons.

I dropped my dry erase markerduring my programming class, so I swung by the office to cadge a new one, Neatnik in tow. The full-timers were having cake to celebrate the department chair's successful defense of his PhD thesis. We were invited to partake and so Neatnik noshed. I chatted about school schedules and classes, mentioning that Neatnik had just sat through a programming class. The boss asked Neatnik what she had learned in class that day.

My kid proceeded to inform the entire room that she learned all about Strings and how Java is a case-sensitive programming language and then absolutely correctly explained to the assembled instructors the example I used in class to illustrate string interning.

Every jaw at the table dropped.

Except mine, of course.

Yep, that's my eight-year-old.