use C++ to teach programming should be considered a crime. You simply don't give people who just got their driver license a truck to drive, not only will it suck out all the fun but also likely get the person killed in the process.
Oh, pish posh. Lots of people started with C++ and they're just fine. Sure, we had our share of segfaults and memory leaks, but it's better to learn what it is and how to prevent it early on rather than hide from it forever.
