I am currently pushing for a new perl oriented course in my university. The current course being taught is a internet technology course where you learn CGI programing primarily with perl and a bit of php.

I have used perl for some time and hold a big bias towards it. So what i could use help with is some good arguments that would support another course on perl. Preferably something outside of the CGI realm of things. Good references would help as well. For example, LAMP.

The question is, why perl vs other technologies. What truely makes this a language worth learning vs others

Thanks in advance for your input!