I have to say that you are right Jeff. Learn to do by doing is extremely important for a programmer.
I was taught through a college where the classes were designed to teach us through code. Instead of simply learning advanced theories like binary trees in a classroom, we coded it. In order to code it, we had to learn it. Not only that, but we had to do a large percentage of our class work in groups. This brought in the social requirements of working as a team.
When I finished school, I came to work with an excellent ability to learn and adapt. I am not coding in a language that I learned in school and I was able to start coding the second day of work without any difficulty because I already learned multiple languages in the classroom. Our classes forced us to work and learn as teams in many different situations, coding many different types of problems and languages. You learn as a team and you excel as a team.
I have yet to find a single University where this method of learning is used. I may not have a degree, but in many ways, my education far surpasses anything taught in the universities I have looked into.