I've noticed this as well, and I've concluded that the actual surprising part for new coders is mutability. In basically every domain where non-developers invent algorithms, everything is immutable - spreadsheets, math!. Heck, even reading an article - the words you've already read don't change their meaning just because you've kept reading.
Mutability is really a result of the fact that computers are physical machines. So I think if you're going to teach software development, you should really start at the machine architecture and build up (ala NAND to Tetris) or start with an immutable-by-default language and only dip into mutation as an "advanced" concept, only to be used by experts and definitely not by beginners.
I endorse the second way, as I've seen it work very well, whereas I've seen more than one ship crash on the shore of understanding pointers...
Mutability is really a result of the fact that computers are physical machines. So I think if you're going to teach software development, you should really start at the machine architecture and build up (ala NAND to Tetris) or start with an immutable-by-default language and only dip into mutation as an "advanced" concept, only to be used by experts and definitely not by beginners.
I endorse the second way, as I've seen it work very well, whereas I've seen more than one ship crash on the shore of understanding pointers...
Of course, my N is small.