Comment SICP (Score 1) 452
Gerald Sussman and Harold Abelson's MIT course "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" is the best beginner's course I've ever seen anywhere. It starts at the beginning and ends up with advanced subjects like closures, and functional composition, building every concept in small pieces with clear examples. Plus the material is freely available, and there's video of Sussman giving the course to a bunch of hilariously dressed HP engineers in the eighties some time.