I'm generally NOT in favor of doing a few basic circuits around the pattern, then learning to land. I teach the same basic turns and such, but I like having the students learn basic acrobatics before putting them to the stress of learning to land. This is so they get used to unusual aircraft attitudes several mistakes high, plus it is usually the type of flying that they want to do anyway. Learning to do loops, rolls, cuban eights, split S's and the like speeds up learning left from right, and recovery when they make a mistake later. Slow flight and placing the model over specific points of the field are also included, and the final workup to landing.

Take-offs are done by the student very early, as it seems to be as large of weakness for most non-students as their landings. I don't consider anyone that needs to takeoff directly into the wind an acomplished pilot, and without proper crosswind techniques, they are dangerous.

In other words, very few of us are not constantly learning and improving, or should be.