Why MIT switched from Scheme to Python
I think there's something else here, implicit in Sussman's comment, that's important. MIT was founded on a philosophy of practicality, and everything else is secondary. If you couple that with the belief that fundamental computer science is the most efficient way to enhance practical software engineering, Scheme was a wonderful choice. Java and C++ may have been more directly practical to software engineers, but they are not good for the field or people pushing the limits of the field - you spent too much time mucking around with their paradigms and idiosyncrasies.Python (and, frankly, a number of the scripting languages-turned-mainstream) combines this clarity of computer science with a practicality that Scheme never had. If you can convey 95% of the basic ideas in Python, and you can also open the door to learning how to deal with 3rd party code, you'd be a fool not to. It was never about programming purity anyway, so there's no reason to mourn the passing of Scheme. It's progress.