guest composers

we have had very interesting composers as guests at ccrma in the last couple of weeks. first "yinam leef" was here for pan asian music festival. we had the honor to have a class with him on composition seminar. i don't need to explain how rich and beautiful his music is, you can just listen to his music yourself but i just mention what moved me in his class was that he and lots of great composers have learned composition in a very classical western style and they are not sure if that's the best way to teach it to the next generations. on the one hand having the luxury of learning harmony and counterpoint in early ages help the composer to get to a deeper level in music, but doesn't it take some of her creativity? for example in  "berlin hochschule der kuenste" the composition students don't go through this classical education and they don't limit themselves to it. what do you think?