I read an excellent post the other day discussing Python education. I personally identify with almost 100% the author has to say. With Perl and PHP online articles and available books provide task based examples. What better way to learn a programming language than to give examples on how to solve a specific problem. More than anything else the lack of task based instruction has stalled my adoption of Python.

http://troutgirl.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/learning-python/