MIT used Scheme as a first programming language till around 2009. It doesn't really matter if a language is "old", as long as it helps students understand what needs to be taught.

finished school in 94 with pascal as well, got to varsity and suddenly oberon. Pascal was an easy and great language to learn on (20 years ago). Delphi might not be that bad, the language seems nicely designed (from looking at it more than a decade ago) and java is not something I think high schoolers should be taught. C and Scheme should feature earlier IMO.