Private methods in ruby aren't that private

private.rb

class Thing
  private

    def some_private_method number
      print "Success (#{number})\n\n"
    end

end

thing = Thing.new

print "Calling thing.some_private_method: "

begin
  thing.some_private_method 12345
rescue
  print "FAILED\n\n"
end

print "Calling thing.some_private_method via send: "

thing.send :some_private_method, 12345

run

$ ruby private.rb
Calling thing.some_private_method: FAILED

Calling thing.some_private_method via send: Success (12345)