[karanbhangui]

All the more reason to use a purpose built teaching language without the cruft and with minimally necessary syntax, no?

[cloogshicer]

I disagree, I think it's more valuable to learn a language that's "real" straight away, because even teaching languages have a lot of details and intricacies, and this way you only have to learn those once (at the beginning).

I'm not saying the other way can't work though, I've just experienced that this is easier.