Sure, in the right hands Django (and Rails) and yield major productivity boosts.

I personally don't like working in frameworks of that size because I find myself fighting them to do what I want.

For the course itself, I really wanted the students to get as close to the server as possible. Then, when some of them switch to the heavier frameworks, they'll have a better idea of what the framework is doing and what is possible. The course had a time constraint on it as well.

All in all, your anecdote reenforces my feelings on the topic :)