Everything should be taught in conjunction and as complimentary to free hand sketching.

What important is teaching design. Anyone can work software well with very little training. Hardly anyone can quickly communicate ideas using scrap paper or a lines drawn in the sand with pointy stick. 

Yes, I agree. 'Thinking' is paramount. But I'm not asking that.

I think it is best to keep it as basic as possible. I would recommend sketchup for a first modeling software. I realize the hand to computer analogy is not want you want but i think of it this way. all the software are just really different tools for the same thing. You can think of them as pens. different ones produce different things better but we don't start kids off with a nice foutain pen for a reason. the complicated use would stifle their ability to learn the basics of how to write. 

This si the same thing with modeling software. Particularly Revit which is generally horrible for early students because you have to be really strong willed to model complex things. sketchup on the other hand and perhaps rhino too are less constraining.  

IMHO Software should never be taught in school. Learning new software on your own is as vital a skill. We cannot rely on a class or the spoon feeding of such a basic skill because this will be something that is encountered constantly throughout ones career. There is no right software, it's about being able to learn a new software. I think that skill is best obtained through self-driven motivations. 

"What program will grow with the student as they progress through the next 2-3 years and why?"

This is such a subjective statement, its like saying passing the A.R.E. will make you a good architect.

Everyone is different, you may grow with rhino but others may find it hindering. a great example and sum what related is alex hogrefe. he said he was not incline to use computers at all in his academic career but his knowing at sum point he has to use them spawned his technique. consider if he was mandated to sum program with rhino for 3yrs?

I think I knew the answer before I posted. I just wanted to be reminded why I don't post in these forums.......

^don't be afraid of reality. You'll need to able to navigate it soon enough once you leave the security blanket of academia.

That and C#, Python for Grasshopper, then Dynamo - students need to progress through Rhino, then learn Revit - 

We weren't taught any means of representation.  We were taught to design and left to find the methods of representation that worked for us.  Occasionally, we'd have a specific request for a representation method, but again, weren't taught to do it.  

Worked out just fine.  It forced us to learn things on our own.  I, personally, think that being an Architect is not necessarily knowing everything, but knowing how to find the answers to everything.  And in that regard, the way i was taught works well.