This is good intiative. We need to simplify pedagogy. On a related note, I always found the syntax of SQL to be great. Someone told me that simplicity of SQL made relational databases even more popular. It is one of the best designed language where even someone new to the field won't feel intimidated. I'm surprised designers of SQL haven't won the Turing Award yet.
I agree except one thing: SELECT cols FROM table. This should really be FROM table SELECT cols as every modern SQL editor will then be able to show you a list of available columns. See LINQ. There they had the opportunity to fix it and it works just great.
So, I will start with a SELECT * FROM myTable t, then go back and replace * with t..
I'll use the same in other places in the query like WHERE conditions.