Most people don't give a flying football whether that statement is true or not.

I don't directly care whether they care about it or not, I care about the belief's effect, regardless of whether or not students care, and I am concerned.

Theories preceding practices are exceedingly rare,

Fortunately, non-stupid theories following practices abound, though they are obviously not universal.

[I]t's silly...to discard a set of methods from serious consideration or study, simply on the basis of obviously-wrong and obviously-stupid theories.

It's a good thing I didn't discard them, and instead qualified my skepticism based on my familiarity with it. You criticize me for downgrading my estimation of the likelihood value is worth extracting from NVC (huge piles of ore abound around a mining town near where I grew up, one could easily acquire millions of dollars worth of silver, though only extract it at the cost of at least twice that in refining costs. Hence, the silver ore is worthless,) after I read their silly theories. If they had said brilliant things, independently derived but in accord with the latest and greatest science, would I have been right to upgrade its predicted utility in my mind?