You are quite right. You can also find the book PLAI by one of the authors of HtDP, Shriram Krishnamurthi. The way he teaches programming languages is eye opening too.

I looked at CMU's curriculum once. The first course they take is based on a language called C0 which is a safe version of C. But the amount of syntax and memory handling you had to learn in a first course was intimidating. The main concepts remained in the background. Although I am not sure how it happens in the actual class. But the number 1 contender amongst CS schools shouldn't let their freshmen go through such hellhole.