I agree in general with the argument put forward.
However:
While it is true that principles of programming are better taught in environments that are more suited to that (in my days that meant Modula2 and Common Lisp), one should not just assume that those skill acquired can be transferred by students unaided to different contexts. As a TA later I watched in horror how students that did perfectly well in programming classes reverted to the bad habits they had thought themselves in hobby programming before college, once they were asked to do a project in the 'industrial' IDE's an languages they were used to back then.
Our 'learning' is far more contextualized than we believe and transfer is hard, not automatic.
While it is true that principles of programming are better taught in environments that are more suited to that (in my days that meant Modula2 and Common Lisp), one should not just assume that those skill acquired can be transferred by students unaided to different contexts. As a TA later I watched in horror how students that did perfectly well in programming classes reverted to the bad habits they had thought themselves in hobby programming before college, once they were asked to do a project in the 'industrial' IDE's an languages they were used to back then.
Our 'learning' is far more contextualized than we believe and transfer is hard, not automatic.