To everyone who is thinking about taking a programming course, no matter what language it is in, you might want to do a little research on the person teaching the class.

Find out:
1.) How long they've been teaching the class
2.) What training they've had
3.) Their actual experience in programming with that language.

Why?

In 11th grade I took Pascal with a certain teacher. She seemed to have a bit of experience and she did a DECENT job of teaching Pascal to us. I knew nothing about Pascal, so I was at everyone else's level...

During the course of that year, the school decided that the following year they would begin teaching C++ instead of Pascal. I immediately signed up for C++ because I though it'd be cool.

When the class started my senior year, the teacher told us this:

She did not know C++, but had taken a course over the summer on C++ and how to teach it. So, we were taught C++ by a teacher that had just taken a crash course on it and knew nothing about the language.

I did not know C++, but because I am a very fast learner and I can teach myself things very quickly, I ended up spending most of my time helping others in the class, running from computer to computer undoing errors and correcting other people's code. I got a 31 in that class (yes, a 31 F) because I never got any of my work done, and because the teacher herself couldn't help much. And when we ran into a major problem that nobody could figure out, she told us she would get a hold of someone who could figure it out and let us know.

This should give you enough reason to do research on your professor before jumping into a class.