One of my subjects at highchool was technical drawing. The teacher was a quite old man who was set on his ways. We would have to draw 3D pieces by hand, using our squares, bevels and compasses, and lining everything with an ink pencil afterwards, and he gave us a lot of homework to do, which he examined for imperfections. I was incredibly bad a it. I would start a drawing, only to discover halfway through it that it…
To put it with maximum extremity, should a student be able to turn-in a traced photograph for their homework in a life drawing class? I mean, human beings have produced a lot of tools for aiding themselves in tasks that were previously done by hand. Whether a given hand-skill should be learned and preserved kind of has to decided on a case-by-case basis. I learned cursive in school and I wouldn't object to that skill…
Vermeer may have done effectively that and painted projections (from a camera obscura or similar device). He's still widely considered one of the greatest artists of the Dutch Golden Age.