[chevreuil]

Yeah, that's the biggest misunderstanding about the teaching of philosophy in France. At the start you think "Cool, I'm going to learn to think by myself!", though what you actually do is learn what other famous thinker have been thinking, and spit it out in your personal fashion. It really has little to do with thinking by yourself, it's more about answering an open question by cleverly articulating school of thought.

Quite disappointing , but still very enlightening (even more if your teacher is cool).

[troebr]

I believe this is dependent on the teacher, I've had two teachers in France in my senior year. The first one was definitely of the "swallow and regurgitate what I tell you", while the second one was angry at students rereading notes before essays, because she thought we had to think by ourselves. Needless to say, I preferred the second one.