[baq]

i'd say it's a good decision for everybody except perhaps hiring companies, and then i'm not sure about that either in the long run.

[nickpsecurity]

I agree. When learning to program, one should first learn the mental activity oc solving problems with code. Then maybe learn all the boilerplate and BS associated with a language like Java. Pascal is simple enough that students can learn fundamentals first. Same with industrial BASIC. Both are like pseudocode.

Many people are turned off to programming encountering Java, C++, etc because they think programming is inherently that difficult.