Counter-anecdata: My stepfather tried to introduce me to programming via C as a kid (with the very same Kernighan & Ritchie book), and it didn't help at all.

An environment with a better REPL and which can do more "fun" programs is better to start out.

Motivation to build fun stuff is important - I ended up starting my learning on GWBASIC of all things :) and there were some cool BASIC games.

I absolutely agree that C is very important to learn when formalizing a programming education.