I guess it depends on the situation and whether you can afford it or not.
Personally, I never regretted not taking them, except for the extra amount of time it took to learn.
I'm glad that I avoided the whole 'beginner' song thing with the cheesy standards, learning to read music and remembering what all the scale names were..or having a teacher telling me what I wasn't supposed to do.
But it woulda been nice to have someone show me how to do tapping and sweeping without it taking 5 years to figure out on my own.