I don't think languages belong in an academic curriculum (at least not in Computing Science). At least no more than metal welding belongs to the curriculum of the astronomy department.

But when it comes to teaching algorithms or software engineering, I think Perl is a bad choice. You only have to look at Mastering Algorithms to see why. With a rich language like Perl, it's too easy to get bogged down in the language details, and it's hard to focus on something else.

Abigail