I think that this may feel like a fun line to poke at but based on my experience in this part of the world I would say that what the author is getting at is tha

I think that this may feel like a fun line to poke at but based on my experience in this part of the world I would say that what the author is getting at is that in education (with no exceptions given for learning software) there is a base belief in learning by route. people learn the single method to accomplish a task, if you ask them to do that very specific task that was on their c++ final in that way they will execute it flawlessly because that is what an A looks like and so they have memorized it. But the minute you change the constraints in any kind of way you find that people are missing the breadth of the entire skill set needed to function.