Ok... I was responding more specifically to...

>the standard sequence is just year after year of memorizing facts and definitions with very little comparable lab time

And I compared the lab and lecture time... and they are very similar (essentially equal)...

I didn't choose to respond to your overall ideas about a chemistry degree because that would require convincing you that there is quite a bit of fundamental information needed to make those labs useful (and efficient) and there was already a great misunderstanding regarding the amount of time chemistry students spend in the lab.