[zippy786]

> I'd like to believe that's true, but I've spent quite a lot of time trying to explain pointers and recursion to people and either they get it right away or practically never.

Have you thought about may be you don't understand pointers and just think you do ? May be you should not start teaching and explaining about pointers before you understand it well. If you can't pin-point why your students don't understand and just say they won't understand at all (may be weak math background or something else), then I'm sorry you lack the knowledge to teach or use pointers.