I don't think it needs to be an XOR. Being forced to cram a very rigid curriculum was not conducive to learning for me. But with no external pressure at all I also find it hard to deeply learn about a topic (I bounce around a lot). For me the perfect classes were the ones that had flexible assignments, where the largest portion of the grade would be a final project that could be related to anything from throughout the course. That way the project is self driven, but also with some constraints and a clear deadline/judgement process.
Now ten years after finish school I think I have learn a hundred time more by myself than from my scholarship.
There is a quote from Taleb which looks something like this "What I learned on my own I still remember."