No reason not to start with FP. Arguably even better. I wouldn't use a brace-language first, though. I'd stick with Logo, Smalltalk, Python, or Scheme, prefera

No reason not to start with FP. Arguably even better. I wouldn't use a brace-language first, though. I'd stick with Logo, Smalltalk, Python, or Scheme, preferably in a decent environment, e.g., Logo or Scratch. The issue with starting with brace-oriented languages is that they spoil you in different ways. Ceremonial languages are a harder sell, less fun, and AFAIK don't have good kid-oriented "IDE"s. (Processing might be an exception since it has reasonably-friendly IDEs and provides immediate feedback.) Worrying about "spoiling" this early because of Ruby seems odd to me. It's a low-ceremonial way to get started, it has enough power to do anything necessary including teaching "higher-order" programming. But without Shoes it lacks the immediate feedback loop for kid-like programming (shapes, graphics, games, etc.)