The other high schools in my district do a more breadth-oriented first-year course using Scratch, Jeroo, Alice and Python, and that works pretty well for them.

The other high schools in my district do a more breadth-oriented first-year course using Scratch, Jeroo, Alice and Python, and that works pretty well for them. I will say that Stacy Armstrong's "A+ Computer Science" curriculum is quite good and well worth the money. I've taught Pascal and C++ before, and dabbled in Scheme, too. In my opinion, Scheme is lower-friction than Java, but precise logical thinking is hard in any language, and precise logical recursive thinking is even harder for the average student, which negates any syntax-related benefits. My kids are very successful in Java, and so I'll stick with what's working until the College Board changes the language of the AP exam on me.