>Just because Python 3 is the shiny new version and the future of the language doesn't change that there is going to be a lot of Python 2 out there and folks will need to learn and understand it.

1) Teaching beginners' Python 2 , the motives are suspicious -- especially considering Googles' use of Python 2 internally.

It's not entirely noble to train beginners' to familiarize themselves on languages that are on their way out just so that they can maintain your legacy code once they get some experience. It's profit maximizing, speaks to their thought-process behind the employees' career, and points towards a culture that's uninterested in internal improvement when things work to turn a profit.

2) Python 2 is not Python, it's Python 2. Programming tutorials for "Python" muddy the search-query waters and make it difficult for beginners to find specific information. This happened to the Lisps, and it's a big barrier to entry for beginners to the language(s).

3) Python 2 can be easily understood by Python 3 users. In fact, it's often more verbose and easier to wrap your head around than Python 3, and the syntactic differences are minor unless you're using advanced features.

I'm sure Google is just releasing internal stuff that's been around for years -- I just think its' disingenuous to refer to what they teach as 'Python'.

Yeah; it's Python if you're a googler; it's python 2 to the rest of the world -- and it's on the way out.

P.S. if my company sent me to a seminar on COBOL, i'd be well aware of the position they expected of me -- and i'd have one foot out the door.