<p>Many students on CC boards claim that one quality they are looking for in a school is smart, engaging fellow students. Well, I love the idea of students sitting around at a Harvard eating hall and discussing the Theory of Relativity or how we are going to manage our way out of Iraq. However, as someone who has logged over 30 years at places of “higher learning,” I believe that much of that type of stimulating discussion happens in the classroom, not the dining hall. In the best example, the professor is a facilitator rather than a mere lecturer. In that setting the student learns at least as much from his/her fellow students. They learn how to participate in a team setting, how some people like to hear themselves think out loud, and how others rarely speak but when they do something extraordinary may come out of their mouth. They learn how to construct a convincing argument. They learn that facts are stubborn things and that the truth is hard to come by–in my opinion, the single-most important thing that one can learn in the undergraduate setting. </p>
<p>If I am understanding Hanna correctly, she thinks the student who does not attend classes yet aces the class has not given up anything. Rather, they have further enhanced their ability to be “independent.” But, in my observation, they have actually given up a lot of the undergraduate experience by thinking they have nothing to learn from anyone else, especially their fellow students.</p>
<p>Where is the type of learning that I have tried to spotlight most likely to happen? In high-level classes at universities and most classes at LACs. That’s why many of us here keep trying to hammer that fact her way.</p>