[antidoh]

Python has less syntactic sugar: semi colon-terminated statements, braces, etc. It doesn't make Python "better," but to a newb, the less the better. If less comes in a real language, so much the better.

Variable declarations ... you could go either way. I like that Python is closer to a language that "knows what you mean" even when you don't declare a variable.

You can learn discipline later. Learning to program is a chicken and egg problem, you have to learn two things: a language (any language) and programming concepts, and unfortunately you have to learn one to do the other. Python's forgiving nature makes that a bit easier than some other languages.