I am tending to agree with Send Clowns even though I do support training in America, I am still glad I took my PPL course over the duration of a year, at a "small flying club" with a great bar talk environment. It is where I learnt a lot of "everyday" issues in regards to flying and life in general. I've also made some great friends along the way.
There is so much one learns from other pilots, be they new to the flying scene or the retired airline captain kicking sitting on the stool at the end of the bar with their passion for aviation still burning within. To be within an environment like a club with or without a bar puts you into an environment that is only good for the foundation of knowledge. One never stops learning and all that...
Nothing can substitute the kind of learning that Send Clowns describes pretty well above.
For this is why I am extremely happy that I didn't attend an integrated course. There would be so much of "everyday useful knowledge" that would be missing if I hadn't been an active member of a flying club for the past nine years (has it really been that long?) and I really do mean "club" in the strongest sense of the word.
Although the club has since closed and an aviation academy has taken up residency in the former club house, the previous club members, the core of the flying scene at our home base and yes that does include the retired airline captain or two, still meet every thursday for an informal "flying related" chat over a few pints at a local drinking venue.