Starting with C is the worst way to learn C++. You start out with bad habits you then have to unlearn.
Unlearning bad C habits is hard because the language accommodates them for as long as you continue to cling to them. You need to consciously decide you will use the new, better way. Once you have done each once, there will be no temptation to backslide.
Because smart pointers are still pointers under the hood. You're forgetting the time before you know what pointers were - people coming from higher level languages don't immediately grok the concept. By teaching them automatic memory management patterns like we use in C++ without teaching them why you need such things, they'll never fully understand the code they're writing.
It's like the "I know React but not JavaScript" crowd all over again.
Unlearning bad C habits is hard because the language accommodates them for as long as you continue to cling to them. You need to consciously decide you will use the new, better way. Once you have done each once, there will be no temptation to backslide.