HN user
It has been attempted! I've taught if to over 400 beginners now and cannot overstate how it's not just possible but actually works pretty damn well. And students instantly have a background from which they can learn other languages too.
I'm the author of the quote at the top of this blog post. I've at this point taught rust as a first language to over 400 people and am very amused by the claims in this thread and it's comments. After a few years of doing this I'm not just convinced it's possible, but have seen a lot of evidence of it working pretty well.