I agree, and I love SICP, but it also assumes a general familiarity with undergraduate-level mathematics, up through calc 1 and linear algebra, as well as some

I agree, and I love SICP, but it also assumes a general familiarity with undergraduate-level mathematics, up through calc 1 and linear algebra, as well as some basic number theory, that many people probably do not have and will immediately be intimidated by. Even though it does not rely heavily on these subjects, they are strewn throughout the work: the book was written at a time when the sole academic path in computing was as an engineering discipline, and the students all had a common background. The field of programming and, I would argue, computer science at large, is much more diverse now, and I think the text could have a broader reach with slightly different examples and exercises, and perhaps a bit more elaboration. Learning to model problems when you are both unfamiliar with the problem domain and the modeling tools is daunting, to say the least.