[jerf]

"Peter Norvig seemed to think most people would get the most out of it after getting some experience,"

I have to strongly agree with that. In general, you can't understand a solution to a problem until you encounter the problem yourself, and SICP too many solutions, too quickly, for problems you've never encountered, for it to stick very well to a novice. It may seem strange to criticize something for student use for having "too much solution in it", but based on what I've seen it's the truth. It would be a better junior or even senior level course than a freshman intro, when you have something to hook the solutions on to. Or an honors freshman course, for people you know have done some prior programming.