Python might not be an easier language to learn than C, but it certainly an easier language to be productive in. Unless your student is highly motivated you will need more exciting examples than writing your own dynamic array to keep him going. Building things that actually do something useful is nearly impossible for a beginner using C, but definitely within reach if you leverage Python's huge libraries.

As long as you want to teach someone programming and not computer science I think a high level language is much better suited.