Hello everybody: I am studying music this year. I am very satisfied of the class of theory: more fluency in reading and I am learning to sight read singing. Wow!
In the class of harmony I am learning to decipher progressions and harmonize them. Very happy.
The class of history of jazz is interesting and exciting.
I am not happy of the class of bass. The exercises we have are mostly technical drills like different kinds of spiders. Boring material to study in isolation.
We do a lot of theory collectively working on paper on melodies to identify notes and their relationship with the harmony. Some things puzzle me, for example: a D is considered fine on C9 while a C is foreign, because it would be correct in a bass line but not in the solo. I am puzzled: soloing is the last thing I would have wanted to learn in a school of jazz while the first thing would be being able to walk my way in a fast jam session given a chord sheet.
i am considering moving to a different instrument, like double bass, the one I would have wanted to learn in the first place and did not take mostly because it takes plenty of space in the home and we have three children.
I am also considering going back to guitar, but I was so excited by the bass because somehow I do not feel being so creative on six string as I am on four, or at least I like much more listening to myself on bass, even if I enjoy a lot listening to guitarists like John Scofield or Jim Hall.
So, a lot of questions, or at least two: what do you think about collective versus individual courses, what do you think about working so much on paper?

This makes no sense to me at all. I'd really love to hear the instructor's reasoning for not wanting a soloist to play the root of a chord.

If you want to learn walking bass, you'd probably be better off with a private bass teacher who was experienced at walking and willing to teach it to you. I don't think there are many classes out there in walking bass.

Theory classes with lots of written assignments can reinforce your knowledge of note names, chord names, scale notes, etc. Of course, you should be able to play and hear anything that you are writing down. That should be an important part of your homework.

This class you are taking is for electric bass? I'm also puzzled as to why they are starting with soloing concepts. I'm curious as to what the double bass class covers.

Talk to a faculty member at your school and tell them what it is that you want to learn. Ask them if that is part of the curriculum.

I'm not a teacher, but I seem to remember reading that Miles Davis told younger players to avoid using tonic notes in solos until the end of the solo. The reason was that tonics are by nature 'final' or 'at rest'. Not using them keeps the tension up in the solo.
BB

Sounds reasonable.

It may also be more of a "what notes to stress" thing. The harmony notes (3rd 5th 7th 9th) are certainly more interesting for building a melody. I would feature the 9th for sure; otherwise why not just play a C7 instead? What better way to get students to ignore a less interesting note (i.e. the root) than to forbid its use in an exercise (not necessarily in real life)?

I am glad when I can remember what chord we are on.....

I think rules are made to be broken.
I can understand why a teacher would discourage you from playing a root in a jazz solo as particularly bassplayers are trained to play roots so much, their solos can sound dull and root-bound at times. You want a feeling of motion in your solos normally and overplaying a root doesn't give that feel.
That said, Miles Davis' So What solo is considered an epitome of jazz soling and features the root notes a lot in his phrases.
It all depends what you want your solo to sound like.
A beginner soloist can sound an awful lot better by avoiding the root at the start of phrases and avoiding the fourth unless it's a minor chord but once you get past that - it's just a case of what sounds good.