In a 141 school I would think many of the students have aspirations to go to the airlines. If so, doing the basics while on a cross country flight is helping the student gain x/c time he'll need later. Even if your student doesn't plan on an aviation career he's probably going to do some cross country flying after he's passed his checkride. You're arming him with additional knowledge on the cross country flights and broadening his comfort zone by getting him away from his home area. Also getting more of the required x/c time if he pursues an instrument rating.

I could also see some good nav practice here too. Flight plan a short cross country flight. Take off and fly to the first landmark. Do some steep turns and stalls. Have the student orient themselves afterward and fly to the second landmark. Set up some slowflight in between the second and third checkpoint. Recover from that and fail an engine between the third and fourth to let them find a suitable landing area in unfamiliar territory.

That seems like some decent real world training. Short / soft field practice at the destination airport. Put them under the hood and let them use ground based nav back home for a little while. The caveat of course is you're not going to get this done in an hour flight. If they're good with going for two hours, you're golden. Hop out at the destination airport for a bathroom break, Coke, and a weather brief before heading home to break up the training scenario and get them a brief rest.

My instructor and I did a few flights like this and it worked well. Good real world flying while still in the training mode. I had an ex-Air Force IP for my private instruction and in a Part 61 school who decided this was the way to train after I had demonstrated enough proficiency with the basics during local flights.