It might. I can imagine using some online conferencing tools like LiveMeeting (the one I know most about) or even sending code and doing Skype conversations. You'd be surprised at how few high schools teach programming BTW. Very sad.
LabVIEW is only one of many others I could have named. The three I named are the ones I personally use the most but of course there are many others. Several for programming robots for example.
Well yeah the opinions are biased. Teacher bias is a clear factor in success. That's the point. The second point is exactly that qualification is needed. What age group or goals do you have. hga seems to understand.
Seriously though, C is a good language but for back to basics you are talking assembly language at least. Preferably several assemply langages.