You are quite right. You can also find the book PLAI by one of the authors of HtDP, Shriram Krishnamurthi. The way he teaches programming languages is eye openi

You are quite right. You can also find the book PLAI by one of the authors of HtDP, Shriram Krishnamurthi. The way he teaches programming languages is eye opening too. I looked at CMU's curriculum once. The first course they take is based on a language called C0 which is a safe version of C. But the amount of syntax and memory handling you had to learn in a first course was intimidating. The main concepts remained in the background. Although I am not sure how it happens in the actual class. But the number 1 contender amongst CS schools shouldn't let their freshmen go through such hellhole.