I hear about C, C++, Java every day whenever people starting talking about computer science, but in my first computer science class we are asked to write in Scheme (DrRacket). 

Why is that?

What differences will this make to my future understanding of programming?

UPDATE: I have finished my first term, but not completely done with Scheme. In my second term (which is now) we got in to C programming. It was frustrated to learn pointers at first, but now I feel much better.

There's not much more to say than that. I'm trying to teach myself Java (or C++?) for the OOP part which I'm missing. So far, I still like functional programming best. Lambda is just fascinating. :)

Sounds like a great school! Lisp dialects follow the mathematical paradigm of algorithms much more closely. They force programmers to learn recursion and the functional style. This is excellent experience. Your school is in the ranks with MIT, which still uses Abelson and Sussman for the required CS 6.001.

You might find this article encouraging and helpful in understanding the issue.
