Having taken the classic MIT 6.001 scheme course, the choice of language didn't really level things out. There was still a big difference between people who came in with years of exposure to code and people who didn't.
Even though many of the topics were new to everybody, the experienced people had a better context to understand why each topic was interesting and useful. That kind of intrinsic motivation makes any kind of learning easier.
I had written lots of terrible programs already, so for me the course was a series of Aha! moments. People without that experience seemed to have a harder time with "What's the point of this?".
It makes me wonder if one couldn't design a curriculum that's deliberately designed to get people writing terrible programs first, in order to motivate the techniques for avoiding those problems.
Even though many of the topics were new to everybody, the experienced people had a better context to understand why each topic was interesting and useful. That kind of intrinsic motivation makes any kind of learning easier.
I had written lots of terrible programs already, so for me the course was a series of Aha! moments. People without that experience seemed to have a harder time with "What's the point of this?".
It makes me wonder if one couldn't design a curriculum that's deliberately designed to get people writing terrible programs first, in order to motivate the techniques for avoiding those problems.