Comment by jfengel

Programming languages, like natural languages, are tools for human beings, not computers. They work around the strengths and weaknesses of a human brain.

It's not a question of being smart or stupid. It's whether the tool fits the task it's applied to and the affordances it gives the user.

Scheme is intended more as a teaching tool than an actual language. Its simplicity is perfect for reasoning about programs. It's less well suited to practical tasks.

About the only really difficult lesson of Scheme is if you use it as a purely declarative language. Imperative features are a natural affordance of the human brain. Working with them is beautiful and alien.