My first programming courses were C++ with no OOP in sight. OOP came in a later course. The exercises were almost like C with strings and vectors. Plus dynamic memory allocation on the second course that wasn't mandatory for the construction tech, mechanics or architecture students.
I'd still teach a beginner's class in C++. That way I wouldn't need to switch languages when it came time to discuss the deeper workings of software.
I would probably change the learning environment though. Working with jed, make and g++ through an SSH shell on the school's servers scares off a lot of bright minds. And needs a web connection at all times while working.
I think I'd introduce Qt Creator for that. Works on most desktop OS's, and supports C, C++ and javascript out of the box.