20 years ago I was in the exact situation of one of your students, i.e. I was put in front with the C language in the first semester of the first year. I barely, barely passed, failed with glory a similar course in the second semester which I only passed (with an A, to put it in US university terms) a couple of years later after I had managed to learn Python by myself in the meantime.
Thanks! I just think that you can get out of practical programming concepts (like loops, conditions) without the need to understand that a string is an array of chars and that chars are actually integers.
Because if remove the basics of programming with something like Python, you can fully concentrate on the second course on low hardware stuff, how to use memory etc..which is really important for my students, them being Electrotechnical engineers.
20 years ago I was in the exact situation of one of your students, i.e. I was put in front with the C language in the first semester of the first year. I barely, barely passed, failed with glory a similar course in the second semester which I only passed (with an A, to put it in US university terms) a couple of years later after I had managed to learn Python by myself in the meantime.