We might still be in a period where C can be both thought of as a historical didactical language and as a language to program in, I'm seeing the pushback from people that fear C as the second kind.

With time, we will stop using C except for very specific things (it's only used for embedded, Open Source and Operating systems at this time anyways), and we will be able to focus on C as a historical and didactical step in a learning path.

This is similar to why it's appropriate to joke about killing someone but it's not appropriate to make a joke about raping someone. Or we are ok with reading about the epic of gilgamesh, or the oddyssey or beowulf, but Bible readings might face more pushback.

But I think we can all agree that learning C is a basic step in the formation of any classically trained programmer.

P.S: Talk is good, I've definitely noticed a top-down approach becoming more popular than bottom-up. But I chose to start with C as a teen, and my uni started me up with Chem, physics and maths before going into programming. Definitely two separate paths.

In other courses I don't enjoy skipping history either, I like learning calculus by learning about newton, it makes it easier to remember. I hate the gray approach of just going for the solutions and memorizing them.