Thread: Accessor question

I was just wondering what's the point in using them, maybe there is something about private data handling out of the application that I am not aware of, though. Anyway, I don't see what's the point of having something like this:

Code:

class x
{
  private:
    int a;
  public:
    int Access_A(void)
    {
        return a;
    }
};

So why having an accessor, I think it goes against the encapsulation rule, but anyway my teacher says we should do so... What is good to do... and to know?