Typical school repertoire

[kuska]

OK, we've all gone through this (at least those who aren't self-taught). As long as we learn we usually go through the same story:
- scales
- etude
- Bach
- Classical piece
- Chopin
 - something modern or any popular music, usually treated as an addition to the repertoire above.

Not that I don't like the set but never really questioned that. I do understand that they are supposed to develop different kind of technical skills and to get us known pieces from different epoques. But I'm interested in the output of more advanced players, also teachers. What's your view on the matter?

As I've returned after several years of no touching piano at all, I realised that my sight reading skills dropped significantly and I have problems with memorizing pieces. However, it turned out that I easily can remember classical music pieces whereas I cannot popular. The probable reason is that I haven't played much popular when I was learning piano at school, so it's more natural for my brain to follow the classical ones. But then, how many of us become classical piano players? Wouldn't be wise to implement more popular music in our learning process? I don't mean here the process while learning jazz piano or some kind of music studies focused on popular music, just a regular piano practice process.

What do you guys think?