I disagree, as much as I like C and think it should be a mandatory language for all serious programmers (see my True Scotsman fallacy here? :D) I think C makes a horrific first language which leaves you mired down in boring details and hard to grok bugs.

I think Python (or other high level languages) are a much better starting point. Python teaches you functions, expressions and objects in an easy flexible way so you can actually do something. C is more for understanding how things work. But if you can't do anything as a programmer yet, why would you care how things work?