I'm a doctor, not a coder, but I did take C++-based CS101/102 in the late nineties, and I've played a little bit with the teach-yourself-Python courses. I'm fairly certain that I, having written next to zero code over the past 18 years, could write a piece of software in Python that cleanly accomplished everything the CS102 capstone project did, and in less than a week. Possibly in a day. Someone who knew their stuff could probably write it in thirty minutes.
Granted, that's partially missing the point - our project was meant to teach concepts like using doubly linked lists, how to export them into a file and read them back in, choice of algorithm, hashing functions, etc., not just banging out code. But in terms of something that would be useful to the average person who might want to write a snippet of code here and there to simplify their life, as opposed to someone who plans to make it their life's work, Python is amazing. Python lets students build useful programs right away because it can do the heavy lifting until they're ready to learn how the sausage is made. Maybe you'll spark curiosity in someone who would never have given it a shot. Maybe all you get is a person who has some appreciation for what writing software actually entails. Either way, aren't we all better off? The serious students are going to learn serious languages soon enough.