[jiggy2011]

Python is such a better language for teaching programming and CS fundamentals than Java or C++.

There is of course a case to make for teach C , ASM or LISP first.

Trying to teach something like OO best practices will be lost on students if they haven't done enough programming to understand code complexity and why OO might be a useful paradigm.

Java is especially bad because you need to use the static keyword as well and the System.out object just to get "hello world" working

[RodgerTheGreat]

While it might be unnecessarily punishing, Forth could be an interesting introductory language. I think it says something very positive about a language when the first thing[1] you learn to do isn't how to write an expression, make a loop or describe a conditional branch- it's how to define a procedure and break a task down into parts.

[1]http://www.forth.com/starting-forth/sf1/sf1.html