Sure, with something like A Scheme Primer by Christine Lemmer-Webber, teaching a Lisp-like language as one's first should be friendly enough. (Just not with SICP. Seriously now.) Dunno if there's anything similar for Common Lisp. But I would de-emphasize the mathematical aspect. People fear math, due to the horrible way it's taught in school. It's more like, hmm.
- Lisp-likes make syntax manifest. You can see the code structure laid bare. Nothing is sugar-coated.
- Lisp gives you ample means of expressing computations (including recursion, among others). It empowers you, while other languages seek to restrict you.
- Lisp doesn't just teach you how to do A and B, but a way of thinking about computers and computation.
Last but not least, we have a really nice community. A fragmented one where everyone is doing their own thing in a corner, because Lisp-likes are like that, but we share a mindset and attitude. In the long run, that matters more than library ecosystems, because code works for people. That's the whole point.
