title: Changing the value of superclass instance variables from a subclass
body: <p>I've found that I can do it this way in the child class:</p>
  
  <pre><code>ParentClass.variable = value;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But I've been told that it's better practice to use get/set methods and not give direct access to variables outside a class. Though this was for when I had an instance of the class in another class, not for subclasses and superclasses.</p>
  
  <p>So is there a better way of doing this, and which way is generally considered best practice?</p>