Another problem with teaching introductory programming in a Real Language, I think, is the temptation to also teach more software engineering-like things as wel

Another problem with teaching introductory programming in a Real Language, I think, is the temptation to also teach more software engineering-like things as well. When you start measuring your experience with programming in decades rather than years, it's hard to remember learning how to program is actually kinda hard. Thus, adding things like version control and IDEs to the mix gives you less time on teaching what should be the core of an introductory programming class: how to solve problems in code. Anything else is fluff that can be ignored until the foundations have been laid. An additional reason I think using something "weird" like Haskell or Scheme is that it's a very good equalizer (Haskell in particular). IME, this kind of class will have two kinds of student: those who already know how to program, and those who've never programmed. Those who already know how to program are mostly going to ignore the class, simply because it's known to them already; and this is a problem because the interactions between strong students and weaker ones is massively helpful, to both parties. Teaching things is, somewhat ironically, perhaps the very best way of focussing your knowledge of it. When you're explaining stuff to yourself (as it were), you can fudge the details you're a bit vague on (which is generally thue tricky bits), but if you're explaining it any vagueness is painfully obvious (I suspect this is also the reason simply explaining a problem to someone can be so helpful).