I love learning but I have to admit I prefer self-study to following the classroom guidelines/due-dates etc. especially because I can go off on a tangent of research, if whim takes me, with what I’m most interested in. I understand structure in a business environment but in a learning environment possibilities and spontaneity are more interesting and enriching!
Structure helps some people with application but there’s always a side to a subject that can be found which is interesting or throwing another curve on learning the subject– like I did with my art history class. Studying physics but don’t like math? Learn about M-Theory! The structure of the classes shape our thinking. Teaching us ideas and opinions, while they can broaden our horizons they can also limit them if just taken at word and not further explored or discussed.
If everyone is trained and taught the same way, unless there’s encouragement for true independent thought aren’t we limiting ourselves? Setting us up not to think out of the box. There’s so much focus on getting the right answer that maybe it’s setting people up to be less creative for fear of being wrong.
Katherine's Atelier 
I also feel as though I am more challenged doing self-study. Sad to say but I think I learned more reading in my spare time than I did during my undergrad. Glad you found the Khan Academy though:)
Because much of what I write requires research, I self-study a lot. But one thing I appreciate about studying within a classroom/lecture setting is that I learn things I would never have thought of studying before. Now that I’ve graduated I guess I’ll have to figure out how I’ll learn to self-study subjects outside my comfort zone.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience! I’d be too intimidated to take a poetry class though. I took one before and then dropped it the next day. I just … can’t to poetry… can’t! So i envy you : )
I’ve been lucky enough to have excellent professors in my classes so far (with one exception we will not be discussing), but I applaud this post. The idea that you have to look for THE MEANING of a poem makes no sense to me – one of the first things I learned when studying poetry is that, while a poem may hint at meanings, ambiguity is essential to poetry.
Khan Academy seems extremely interesting. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Good luck with your self-studying endeavours!