Just don't start with PHP.
EDIT: I am being downvoted. But I will say this again. I do not care about what you use for programming in school. but, Do NOT, under any circumstances, start your programming career with P. H. P. Never. Never...ever.
Doing PHP right is challenging, and for bigger apps it requires more insight into the internals of the server and the client than, say, a comparable application written for Ruby on Rails. PHP certainly gives you enough rope to hang yourself, and while I personally do enjoy the length of rope it gives me, it's also very clear that newbies have no chance of making the right decisions given this tool.
I started out with Java, moved on to Python, and now I'm using Clojure. Every language & ecosystem -combination is some sort of trade-off, but one could reasonably make the case that Clojure is the best trade-off currently available.
Whatever he does, he should not get stuck using PHP because there are much better tools available.
I may not like it, but it has its place.
Let us see. You follow the shortest path to make a service/web app. I use your service/app. You get hacked. (By the way, has the php community yet have a clue how the php.net site got hacked, like, I don't know, 2 years back?), I am fucked.
Who wins?
Instead, what if you put in the effort to actually educate yourself about the stuff you need to know before you put a service online? What if you actually use a language that is not a complete mine field. What if you actually use a language that will actually tell you that you are wrong, right to your face, instead of conveniently working half of the time?
And the funny thing is that it is not even the shortest path to "shit on screen". Check out how easy it is in python to put stuff on screen
The worst thing right now is people who are actually promoting php to new comers! My earlier comment was removed from here, because I told not to start programming careers with PHP.