I'd guess almost any route is good as long as you follow good coding practices. I learned in the following order:

1. Psuedo code (algorithms and data structures and big O stuff)
2. Java (OO programming)
3. C (not really for C itself, the class was called Languages and Tranlations).

step 3 forced us to learn C because the class was taught in C but really the point was to learn "Languages and Translations"....compilers and what not. I learned that once you know how to program....learning any language isnt so hard because you have the basic skills. That's why we were taught algorithms and data structures in the 1st class....we didnt have to worry about compiling and weather or not the code worked, we only focused on concepts. then in the java course, it wasnt really a Java course, it was a class to teach OO skills and good programming techniques like commenting and using APIs and we had to use what we learned in the 1st course. Java comes with Linked Lists and Hashtables...but we had to code our own. Then in the 3rd class (the C one) we had to teach most of the language to ourselves. They taught us pointers and structures and what not but by then, if you didnt know how to program already...u were for sure gonna fail that class.