<p>"Sure Hanna, you’ve exhibited traits like “Look if I’m smart enough to do the course by my own independent study and not go to class”</p>
<p>Actually, I haven’t. I virtually always went to class in college, because almost all of my professors were good.</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.”</p>
<p>They haven’t given up anything if the classes were useless. I was responding to a specific anecdote about a professor who needled students who skipped class. I almost always went to class (at both my LAC and Harvard) because I found the classes valuable (yes, I believe I was capable of distinguishing a worthy class hour from a wasteful one). But a student who’s skipping class clearly doesn’t think the class is worth his/her time. I wouldn’t want a professor to nag me for not wanting to waste time, and I don’t particularly want to be surrounded by classmates who are only there because the professor needled them into attending.</p>
<p>'In that setting the student learns at least as much from his/her fellow students."</p>
<p>Well, assuming that the other students are well-prepared and willing to speak up, which was consistently the case at the classes I’ve attended at Harvard and Swarthmore (for example), but not at every LAC. Not by a long shot. Whether there are great discussions in a class is determined by a number of factors, but whether the school is an LAC or not is not one of them.</p>
<p>“that shows gross misinformation”</p>
<p>Since I attended an LAC (really, two of them, brother/sister schools), I’m speaking from my own direct experience. If your experience is different, go ahead and share it. But your contrasting observations don’t mean that my experience is “misinformation” and your experience is truth.</p>
<p>“as well as encourage kids with perhaps diffidence to SPEAK UP AND GROW UP AND BECOME MORE SELF ASSERTIVE.”</p>
<p>Of course. Which is one reason that I’ve said repeatedly that LACs are the best choice for many individuals. But if you’re already comfortable speaking up, relying on yourself, and being assertive, then an LAC can indeed feel limiting. I didn’t find it like a nursery, but I did find it like swimming in a supervised pool wearing water wings when I wanted to be leaping off the high dive and surfing in the ocean. In other words, it’s extremely safe, and a great way to learn fundamentals, but if that little pool isn’t exactly what you want, you have no options but to leave.</p>