It does sound like you were expecting a full Lisp and instead were greeted with one of the Beginner Languages, intended to teach first time programmers in a ver

It does sound like you were expecting a full Lisp and instead were greeted with one of the Beginner Languages, intended to teach first time programmers in a very structured way. See https://docs.racket-lang.org/drracket/htdp-langs.html https://docs.racket-lang.org/drracket/htdp-langs.html The example that you give is not an error in full Racket: Welcome to DrRacket, version 6.12 [3m]. Language: racket, with debugging. > (cons 'foo 'bar) '(foo . bar) Similarly, full Racket has multiple, powerful macro systems, and more besides, deliberately excluded from the Teaching Languages. * * * I'm not an academic, but the community and core Racket team are incredibly supportive, and any Comp Sci professor running into difficulties teaching a Racket-based course can easily access plenty of support and guidance, starting by contacting the user mailing list.