EPTI think I got rather lucky on the instructor front. They all seem personable, and they talk to the class rather than just go over notes and prepared coursework. Hopefully, my first impressions pan out. A bad instructor can just ruin it all.
My Chem teacher surprised me. I had a bad experience once with a foreign teacher. Thick accent, very methodical in his teaching to the point where he could just have things out a book. Getting an instructor who has a noticeable accent and a hard to pronounce name puts me on the defensive immediately. I like to think I'm a fair person, but it's amazing what prejudice rears its head on you. Humans are flawed, but I'm glad I was wrong.
He was really engaging. Someone actually asked how he pronounced his name, and he just said "Call me Tim. You don't even want to try my name and forget my first name. It's the longest name I've ever seen." Self-deprecating humor immediately disarms the class. He then went on to make a pretty decent twenty minute lecture about what Science is and Scientific Method, but people were responsive and it was a pretty good take on a subject I've heard many dozens of times in school. Plus, you got to love a Doctor who spends his days teaching basic chem in the morning and his afternoons doing his research projects at the local Children's Hospital.
Dr. Tim gets props for shattering preconceived notions on Day 1a.
