Let's say I decide I want to learn Calculus.
I go down to the local community college that offers such classes and try to sign up.
Before they take my money they ask, "what math have you already taken?"
If I am uncertain about my abilities, there's a test. If I need to brush up on my algebra then I take those classes first.
Do you know what they don't ask me to do?
Take the kindergarten class on arithmetic if I show I already know how to add and subtract during the test.
The paradigm for shooting classes seems to be to assume that unless you've attended their arithmetic class, there's no possible way you can know algebra so you must take that class first.
Even when they don't have such an attitude, they don't seem to be able to communicate what they are teaching at their various levels so that I can make a self assessment about which class is most appropriate for my default skill level. There doesn't seem to be a test I can take that will place me either.
It's so very frustrating. I want to expand what I know, but I also don't want to spend money on needless remedial teaching. That'd just make me bored and cast a pall on future classes.
Never mind the eyewatering cost of most of these classes! Heck, if they were cheaper, maybe I wouldn't worry so much about relearning something.
Speaking of those costs; where are the classes priced for the people who make minimum wage delivering pizza or behind the counter at the Kwikie-Mart? The people whom are far more likely to encounter someone with a gun pointed at them than someone who can casually plunk down $1,000 and take a week off three times a year.
I go down to the local community college that offers such classes and try to sign up.
Before they take my money they ask, "what math have you already taken?"
If I am uncertain about my abilities, there's a test. If I need to brush up on my algebra then I take those classes first.
Do you know what they don't ask me to do?
Take the kindergarten class on arithmetic if I show I already know how to add and subtract during the test.
The paradigm for shooting classes seems to be to assume that unless you've attended their arithmetic class, there's no possible way you can know algebra so you must take that class first.
Even when they don't have such an attitude, they don't seem to be able to communicate what they are teaching at their various levels so that I can make a self assessment about which class is most appropriate for my default skill level. There doesn't seem to be a test I can take that will place me either.
It's so very frustrating. I want to expand what I know, but I also don't want to spend money on needless remedial teaching. That'd just make me bored and cast a pall on future classes.
Never mind the eyewatering cost of most of these classes! Heck, if they were cheaper, maybe I wouldn't worry so much about relearning something.
Speaking of those costs; where are the classes priced for the people who make minimum wage delivering pizza or behind the counter at the Kwikie-Mart? The people whom are far more likely to encounter someone with a gun pointed at them than someone who can casually plunk down $1,000 and take a week off three times a year.