[karmakaze]

I'm on the fence about this, which is why I'm interested in hearing about cases where FP is taught as an intro. I sort of suspect that the younger folk (as in children) may be more comfortable with FP when you tell them that this phrasing does such-and-such without further explanation or understanding and be able to apply it. Grown-ups will question why a self-referential function can work at all and perhaps get hung up on it until they grasp recursion.

In short it requires more abstract thinking to understand it, but understanding isn't necessarily required to apply it effectively.