Thanks for the substantive reply! It's good to get a different perspective.
I think you may be right about it being suboptimal for self learners. It was, after all, not really designed for that. I disagree that the breadth of the course is a flaw.
One major problem I consistently see with self-taught individuals (including myself before college) is that they have major blind spots, places where they don't know what they don't know. A broad introductory course that intentionally doesn't restrict itself to topics the student is already interested in is the best way I know to quickly turn those unknown unknowns into known unknowns. Whether or not the student chooses to fill those gaps in later with further courses, they'll be better for knowing where the gaps are.
I think you may be right about it being suboptimal for self learners. It was, after all, not really designed for that. I disagree that the breadth of the course is a flaw.
One major problem I consistently see with self-taught individuals (including myself before college) is that they have major blind spots, places where they don't know what they don't know. A broad introductory course that intentionally doesn't restrict itself to topics the student is already interested in is the best way I know to quickly turn those unknown unknowns into known unknowns. Whether or not the student chooses to fill those gaps in later with further courses, they'll be better for knowing where the gaps are.