> I would be hard-pressed to think of a worse first language than C. You want to introduce people to the concepts of programming, which means abstractions and high-level thinking. C forces you to think in terms of the computer and its memory, which is just the opposite.

This is actually exactly why I like the idea of C as an introductory programming language. Most of the time it's very clear what you are doing there is no magic. Mathematics also involves abstractions and high-level thinking, but you don't start out with calculus or linear algebra. You learn the basics then you abstract them.