I think recursion is easier to read than C-style for-loops because you don't need to memorise syntax.

for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {...}

vs

```let rec func_name counter = if counter = 5 then print "blast off!" else func_name (counter + 1)```

I don't really need to memorise the order of operations compared to a for loop (initialise, exit condition, increment) and I don't need to memorise if the exit condition means "execute while this is true" or "break the loop if this is true". That's just me though. I think the syntax for recursion is easier but loops might conceptually be easier to understand.

I think, better than both of those for the general case (and a good introduction) are "fold" functions and "foreach"-style loops, which iterate over every element in a list. I think those are used more often, and the reason you may want to do this is clearer to a student.