I'd actually skip on Python and give them Scheme with a copy of "The Little Schemer." However, I agree with the OO sentiment. It brings a lot of vernacular and

I'd actually skip on Python and give them Scheme with a copy of "The Little Schemer." However, I agree with the OO sentiment. It brings a lot of vernacular and concepts that are not important to the building of a program; at least not at first. Classes, objects, meta-classes, inheritance, multiple inheritance, method resolution order, operator over-loading, class methods, static methods... it's all baggage for a new programmer. It's an interesting way of organizing code and encapsulating the responsibilities of different parts of a larger program... but it's a purely architectural tool. For a beginning programmer they aren't worried about such design concepts. They just need to understand inputs, outputs, and control flow. A single function is a program for them. Once they have a grasp of the fundamentals then you can think about introducing them to OO programming. Beginner's mind. It's hard for an experienced programmer to grasp.