Genghis,
Your professor is my kind of teacher.
When dealing with the subject of lift I start by telling the students that "The wing of an aircraft is simply a tool used to accelerate air downwards. Everything else that we will look at regarding this subject is concerned with how it achieves this downward acceleration and the consequences of it doing so".
Bernouli gives an exellent explanation of how a low pressure area is created above the wing. Once the students accept the fact that this low pressure area holds up the wing, I ask "so now what holds up the low pressure area"?
This brings us nicely on to the newtonian effects of air above the low pressure area being drawn down into it. This in turn leads to an entirely intuitive explanation of downwash and lift-induced drag. It is surprising how many of the more experienced students (usually ex CFS QFI types) are completely stumped by the question "so what holds up the low pressure area"?
I realise that this approach does not explain the minute details of every possible aspect of the airflows around wings, but we must be careful that our explanations are actually intelligible to the students. When I first started in the business of teaching POF to CAA students, I sat in on a course presented by another instuctor. He was particularly keen on circulation theory, so this is what he used. Towards the end of the lesson on lift, a maltese student sitting next to me looked across to me and asked "Is he really saying that the air flows over the wing from the leading edge to the trailing edge, then flows back to the leading edge underneath it"? when I shook my head he collapsed into his seat.
Captain Cargo,
You are correct in saying that the Newtonian explanation of lift is not included in the JAR ATPL syllabus. But strangely enough they have asked questions about it!