[musicale]

Python is a great first language, because you can learn the basics in an afternoon, but it is still capable of handling (and actually used for) many real-world tasks from robotics to games to scientific computing.

Its low barrier to entry, high reward/effort ratio and quick feedback loop make a good way to recruit potential CS majors!

As others have mentioned, Python's slowness can also require you to pick good algorithms, and its minimal compile-time error checking means that you really need to test your code well and also handle unexpected runtime errors. ;-)

BASIC is a great first language for similar reasons.

[p_l]

I'd say that Python is a good language to learn on your own, but not a good language for teaching computing at higher lever.

Low barrier to entry and quick feedback loop are shared with Racket in this case, and Racket offers much more to learn.