I completely agree. On one hand, it's absolute insanity... but then if you think about how we (I) learned systems, it was by exploration. I typed things in that little back box called "terminal"... sometimes I broke things, then I would search on the Internet for a solution... I would try that, usually breaking things further. But ultimately it was a great learning process.
I've known Charlie and the Penn Manor Technology team for about two years now, and what they are doing is absolutely fantastic. I think they need more support from the software engineering disciplines.