I think that this assumption might leave behind students that have not yet been exposed to any programming (that stuck). Let me provide some anecdotal counter-

I think that this assumption might leave behind students that have not yet been exposed to any programming (that stuck). Let me provide some anecdotal counter-evidence: during my last year of high school, I was in a university class where they taught us programming using Haskell (this was in 2000). I observed a fairly consistent pattern - those who had prior experience with imperative programming (me included), had far more difficulty picking up Haskell than those who hadn't. The girl I worked with (who had no prior experience) was surprised, since "it's just like maths" :).