That's a problem regardless of the specific language taught first and I say that having personally witnessed the struggles of students who learned in pseudocode

That's a problem regardless of the specific language taught first and I say that having personally witnessed the struggles of students who learned in pseudocode (my first semester), Java, Python, and Scheme. Programming requires you to structure your thinking a particular way. It's natural for some people, it's unnatural for others. I tutored a couple dozen people of varying aptitudes through the courses as an undergrad and was suprised at how little a difference Java vs Python made. I do think that there are better ways and worse ways to teach programming. Brett Victor put out an overview [1] of the topic last year and while that essay in itself isn't the answer, it's at least a better start than anything I ran into as an undergrad. [1] http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/ http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/