I am a guitar teacher also, along with another half dozen instruments, and couldn’t agree more! Students that learn 60s and 70s songs are absolutely prepared for anything that comes at them. Of course, reading music (not just tab) is a must for kids,though I give the ‘old-timers’ a little slack on the reading..
Thank you for your affirmation! :-)
I love the special guitar music paper that combines Staff lines, tab and Chord frames all on the same page. By seeing all three visual graphs combined with hearing the notes and the muscle memory in the fingering, new pathways are formed in the brain.
One of the tunes that I use for sight-reading is “As Tears Go By” by the Stones.