Two counter-points I would make to your comment, without agreeing or disagreeing overall about the effectiveness of the teaching.
The first is that it is possible for the educators to be "earnest" and unsuccessful in their attempts.
The second is that "memorization not rtionalization" could well be the opinion of his daughter, not her educators. Sure, they should do their best to prevent this, but kids with good memories will often use this to shortcut learning. I received an A* grade for my GCSE French (school exams at age 16 in UK - although I took at 15) not because I was good at French, but because I had a good memory. The written paper for example was 50% essay, and thanks to teachers preparing us on what sort of topics to expect, I was prepared. I picked "write about a recent holiday" and wrote an entire essay from memory. As in, I'd written it weeks previously (in the case of this specific essay, I'd actually written it for the oral exam, for which I had to memorize it and speak it... a nice it of duplication luck for me!), but I could write it down word perfectly without any mistakes. Coincidentally I'm sat in a hotel room in Paris right now, having spent yesterday remembering how poor my French language is.