Eh, I think the approach we (as in, that's how I learned programming, too) learned with is the correct one, really. Computational physics is less about programming and more about the constant tension between the demands of efficiency and accuracy and the inherent imperfections of the methods (e.g. difference models) and underlying machine representation of numbers.

Physics isn't just about punching numbers into a computer or solving math problems, and I think a shift toward more programming centered learning of physics needs to be heavily tempered with that understanding.