Community college courses are definitely hit-and-miss but I'm a strong believer in their utility. You just have to make sure you pick wisely. Arts education i

Community college courses are definitely hit-and-miss but I'm a strong believer in their utility. You just have to make sure you pick wisely. Arts education is a steal. You can find classes with reasonably successful faculty. I'm currently taking screenwriting at De Anza and enjoyed short fiction classes with Bob Bausch (http://www.robertbausch.org/ http://www.robertbausch.org/) back in Virginia. With workshop-style classes, there can be wider variation in talent-levels and enthusiasm yet not be a show-stopper in helping you move forward with your skills. These faculty can also be very accessible for personal review of your work. Comp sci/programming is another story. It'd be too frustrating to take courses at the CC level because of the pace, although even here, I can see a problem-based course accommodating different levels of skill and interest. The availability of all these internet courses will make a dramatic impact to education. I would have killed to have access to this stuff back in high school. Makes me wonder what impact it might have on the community colleges, especially if states force reuse of exemplary open material.