I believe Lisp is a good choice for beginners too, but it's two different approaches. Lisp is interesting for the theory behind it - you can introduce lambda ca

I believe Lisp is a good choice for beginners too, but it's two different approaches. Lisp is interesting for the theory behind it - you can introduce lambda calculus, parsers, AST, stacks while you teach the language, and the student will have a grasp of how the computer understands code. Python is a more hands-on approach - you just teach some syntax that reads like english and the student can put some libraries together and do something meaningful, the barrier is low and you get instant gratification, which is important to keep students motivated.