"Python is a powerful and expressive language that has very simple syntax. If you're unsure of which programming language to learn, Python is a great choice. The language is used in a variety of disciplines: application, web, and game development. Python can do it all. Courses are based on Python 2.7.3."
This won't be a short post, but it'll give you a summary of close to a year's worth of trying to teach people how to program. We know what works and what doesn't, and so far there's a lot of stuff out there that just doesn't work, based on our own experience and what our paying customers are telling us (they're mostly people who tried and gave up on Codecademy, Codeschool, Udacity, and Coursera).