One of the things I hate about “why not” is that the tone that some people take is not dialogic; they throw it back at you when you might be looking for a thread to start. There are valid reasons for “why not” though. For instance, I do think that learners should be able to set the agenda around topics that interest them. Given that we work in a sector where things are pushed down from the top, I think there is a give and take. If you are in a physics course, if the learners want to focus on Theater, it may be possible to do this some of this within physics, but not everything 🙂 I think it’s a negotiation process.