Python in Education: Raising a Generation of Native Speakers

Primarily because of its young age, Python is still a language that people only discover after having digested a few others: while many of its users love it enthusiastically, almost nobody is a native speaker of it, in the sense of having been exposed to it before any other. As computer literacy evolves from desirable to necessary for people from all backgrounds, computer professionals and academics are responsible for taking a long-term view on how best to educate the next few generations of computer users. Form shapes contents, so the influence of a clean yet expressive first language in establishing good mental models and programming habits should not be underestimated. This paper discusses how Python, with its high level of abstraction and judicious balance of simplicity, conciseness and versatility, is an excellent choice to introduce the fundamental ideas of the art of programming.