Teaching by rote

I found this video of Tommy Emmanuel teaching Classical Gas by rote. It's fairly funny, and there are a few great jokes in there, but the main idea I was thinking about was the idea of teaching by rote (aka playing something and having the student play it back by ear, without music). This is commonly used in the Susuki method, and it can be fairly controversial at times. As you watch the video, Tommy is giving instructions with chords, so that helps as he plays, but in general the guys is having to listen. He does a fairly decent job, too.
Now, how does this apply to teaching? Well, like I mentioned earlier the Susuki method of teaching (especially violin and piano) relies on folk songs that kids know, and having them play by ear. While this has its ups and downs, I think any musician should have to train their ear. I am not saying every student should be started that way (as visual learners would probably not do as well), but to train a musical ear, practice in listening to pitches and matching them on an instrument is a great thing. Brass players need to be able to hear pitches in their head first to make sure they hit the right partial, and woodwind and string players need to make sure they are playing in tune. Having students play by rote every once in a while can help break up a class period with something a little more fun and different, while still helping them musically.