Python is great for beginners, quick results (Score 1)

I happen to believe that Python is an excellent language to start many beginners on. I happen to be on the Undergraduate Affairs committee for my University's Computer Science program, which is often tasked with picking the language for many first year classes. Ours used to be in Pascal, but it was decided that Pascal was too out of date, as the latest books on pascal that anyone in a first year class could buy, were published around 12 years ago. Python on the other hand is fairly new, still quite frequently used (including the Google Apps Engine), and had the extra benefit of showing early results so that beginners could actually feel like they are making progress. It also has the benefit of being able to work well in a procedural or object oriented language.