Quoting from [1], section "The ABC Project"
> The letter “B” was chosen because it is the first letter of the word “beginner” and because the project was meant to become a language for teaching programming to absolute beginners.
[1] https://inference-review.com/article/the-origins-of-python
Python was not originally a teaching language.
Yes, van Rossum was an implementer of ABC, which was a teaching language. Python drew on that experience, but also from Modula-2 and Modula-3, and the needs for writing an extension language for the Amoeba operating system.
From the initial release notes at https://www.tuhs.org/Usenet/alt.sources/1991-February/001749... :
[Python is] an extensible interpreted programming language that
combines remarkable power with very clear syntax.
This is version 0.9 (the first beta release), patchlevel 1.
Python can be used instead of shell, Awk or Perl scripts, to write
prototypes of real applications, or as an extension language of large
systems, you name it.
Python was originally a teaching language, to replace BASIC and Pascal for kids and beginners.
(Yes, there once was a time when people took teaching programming seriously.)