I was thrilled to see how quickly the students took to Scheme once they had their hands on it. But the greatest validation occurred yesterday when a couple of my last year's AP C++ visited the intro class. Literally, their eyes widened and their jaws dropped when they saw that the intro kids were writing functions in the first week! They kept saying, "This is incredible!" These two kids had been VERY good students and had an intellectual depth that allowed them to appreciate what they saw. And their reaction helped validate Scheme for some of the beginners who were still unsure of whether Scheme was as 'real' as C++.
Michel P