Despite the fact that I learned imperative style first (as most have) -- I think that functional programming is also a valid start point. I don't know that you

Despite the fact that I learned imperative style first (as most have) -- I think that functional programming is also a valid start point. I don't know that you necessarily benefited from starting in Java/some other procedural language. I actually graduated from UT's Comp Sci school and I know many of the "elements" courses (super introductory, even for non-majors) are taught in python. That, I think is a good introduction, but for people in the major, I don't think learning Haskell/functional programming is a stretch at all. If one can wrap their minds around functional programming (which introduced correctly is actually relatively easy to grasp) -- it will be MUCH easier to learn imperative programming. In the end, any good imperative programming seeks to be modular (s/procedures|methods|subroutines/functions/g), and will liken itself to something you would write in functional programming (loosely couple functions that do a specific task well). Yes there are places this gets hairy (side effects, I/O based operations), but computer science is not about writing procedural code, it's really more about algorithms, which is why 4 year universities are NOT trade schools, but do prepare you for the real world (in that you're not COMPLETELY useless). Program syntax is easy to learn (a skilled faker can just repeat it verbatim), efficiency/correctness/proper data-structure usage is difficult.