Why not Java?

From Mark Guzdial's* CS Education blog:

I agree with Professor Guzdial about the suitability of Java as an introductory programming language. On his CS Ed blog (see below) he writes:

Improve Computing Education: Take the More-than-Java Pledge

I have a sure-fire way of improving computing education. Everyone reading this, post this to your blogs and Facebook status and every other way that you make public, digital statement these days:

I promise to no longer teach Java to anyone at the undergraduate Freshman level or earlier.

I am teaching Java in my Media Computation Data Structures class this semester, the first time I’ve taught first year students in four years. I had forgotten how bad Java is for beginning students!

* Mark Guzdial is a Professor of CS at Georgia Tech. (Georgia Institute of Technology).