Indeed, I'm surprised by how often people make arguments that seem to assume the only options are C from the start, or no C at all. When you're teaching system

Indeed, I'm surprised by how often people make arguments that seem to assume the only options are C from the start, or no C at all. When you're teaching systems programming, all the things that have to be done by hand in C are precisely the things the students are supposed to be learning. But for almost everything else, they're pointless details that obscure what you're actually trying to teach. Teaching multiple languages also has the advantage of showing people how they're mostly not that different.