I really don't disagree with the substance of your comment, though the Algol-family languages tend to be hard because of disorganized core libraries and occasio

I really don't disagree with the substance of your comment, though the Algol-family languages tend to be hard because of disorganized core libraries and occasionally cumbersome syntax rather than because they depend on unfamiliar mathematical constructs. I have little experience in education, but my naive hypothesis is that it would be easier to teach a child, say, Python than any FP-oriented language. I suppose it goes without saying that if children were introduced to the lambda calculus beforehand this might not remain true. See my comment beneath the root to see my clarification of the original post. I don't think Dijkstra would disagree with me. After all, it was he who suggested the average American programmer would benefit "more from learning, say, Latin than yet another programming language."