Another approach is to introduce newcomers to programming with a single course that: 1) uses Python to teach general programming, 2) uses JS to show how to write code that runs in a browser, and 3) demonstrates low-level programming patterns using C.

This is essentially what CS50 at Harvard does, and it seems to work well. Once a student has been exposed to these 3 languages, subsequent courses can explain how a computer works and introduce new paradigms (FP, LP).