Beginning with Python; the right choice?

[Zaphod]

snip
> In terms of good tutorials for absolute beginners, here are two:
> 
> Alan Gauld's Learning to Program
> http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/
> 
> ShowMeDo.com has lots of Python instructional videos, including this one
> for absolute beginners:
> http://showmedo.com/videotutorials/series?name=irgGc9ChS
> 
> I also recommend the Python tutor list, which you can sign up for here:
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
> 
> So what is it that you want to use Python for?
> 
> Che

Also have a look at http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/ 
which is a bit less in depth but faster and also fun way to get started.  
I teach high school programming and although I do teach Visual Basic at 
the lower levels (grade 9/10) I use Python for my grade 11/12 students.  
It's an easy language to learn and has an incredible amount of 
functionality through importable libraries.