[brendano]

Here's a positive report on teaching "back to basics" first-semester programming with Java. They only teach procedural concepts and no OO at all. The point is, while Java itself is non-ideal for this and slants towards OO, you can just ignore that part and teach with it anyway.

Lots of people here have raised concerns that the way Java forces class and static declarations is confusing for beginners. Interestingly, the instructors were concerned about that too, but found that students don't seem to mind.

http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~reges/sigcse/basics.pdf

http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~reges/sigcse/basics.ppt

The second major concern being discussed here, that functional programming isn't possible in Java, I think is a non-issue for a true introductory first-semester class, which needs to focus on more basic issues of procedural programming and abstraction. The SICP approach is beautiful and great for already advanced and highly motivated students, but that's honestly a small minority.

(You can find many more examples of reports like this if you search for "CS1", which is the shorthand for intro-to-CS that's used in the CS education literature.)