> You can't really learn C without also learning to use a debugger

News to me.

I learned C in '85 from the K&R book and the project lead for our little startup's Fortran to C translator. No debuggers were involved as far as I can remember.

[p.s. as to "why" teach C. I know many languages at this point, but that initial exposure to C necessitated a deeper understanding of 'the machine', memory management, etc. The core of C is fairly straight forward and imho an excellent pedagogical vehicle for a 'substantial' understanding of "programming".]