I'm 35 and I'm learning Clojure these days after many years on Java and web programming (JavaScript and now mostly Groovy and Grails). When I was on the University I had one class which included programming in Scheme. I absolutely hated it at that time, so I skipped it completely. Now I regret it :-) ... Clojure is a good alternative for me, feels much closer to what I already know (JVM-based languages).