Protected vs Private w/ accessor methods

This question doesn't really have anything to do with accessors at all but the difference between private and protected. I think.See this http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/javaOO/accesscontrol.html

He was pointing out a mistake in your first post. The point of an accessor is to allow access to a private member variable. However, if the accessor method is private just like the field it is supposedly providing access to, then there really is no point!