You can program in a functional style using python to an extent BUT... python in many ways puts up roadblocks that make it a less than fulfilling thing to do.

You can program in a functional style using python to an extent BUT... python in many ways puts up roadblocks that make it a less than fulfilling thing to do. I would say you could become familiar with functional programming in python but you can't experience the full depth of functional programming, for that given your general goals... I would suggest looking at clojure ( runs on jvm and gae )