Somewhat related: [1]. A bit provocative title, but it's actually about "teaching (the newcomers) C++ constructs first before going through C-era ones".
[1] CppCon 2015: Kate Gregory “Stop Teaching C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnWhqhNdYyk)
[1] CppCon 2015: Kate Gregory “Stop Teaching C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnWhqhNdYyk)
I actually think there are also important lessons to be learned when trying to teach any programming language as a first language, because beginners are likely to offer some illuminating questions, and that begins with the boilerplate (the Dobbs article calls it "scaffolding" but I think boilerplate is appropriate).
The boilerplate in C++ is very bad. I am convinced that it would be less bad (maybe still pretty bad, but less bad than say C) if right early on somebody had sat down with students learning this as a first language and noted down all the warts they run into and set about fixing as many of those warts as possible.