[caconym_]

IMO Ruby does a pretty good job hosting a bunch of different programming paradigms and techniques in a consistent way. Whether or not that's ultimately a good thing in a language, I don't know, but I can believe it has benefits in an educational context. Add to that the popularity of the language in general, and it seems like a decent choice for a "boot camp" style education.

If there's a real argument to be made for the pedagogical merits of Javascript, I'd love to hear it. There does seem to be a sizable job market for relatively inexperienced Javascript developers, though.