I don't take it as rude at all. It's a valid opinion and I always appreciate constructive feedback. I don't disagree and also don't mean to be rude (I promise no sarcasm intended), but, we set up our classes here in Flagstaff to cater to our local kids (Flagstaff, Williams, Parks, Bellmont) first and foremost. I would expect an instructor team in another town to do the same (cater to local families' schedules and their availability). I took the class with my daughter in 2013 in Pinetop because getting into a class in Flagstaff was impossible at the time. We arranged our schedule to be there when we were supposed to be because she needed the class. That's actually what prompted me to become an instructor; I wanted to provide more opportunities for our local kids. Classroom classes have a 16-hour requirement, including the field day. We've been doing Thurs-Sun classes like this for 9 years with great success. From experience and feedback, the classroom classes that drag on for 2-3 weeks get really long and students forget the material really easily. It's painful for instructors (at least that's our team's perspective) to have classes 2 hours/night 2 nights/week for 3 weeks. Several folks from Camp Verde, Prescott, Prescott Valley, and even Tucson say they prefer our class schedule and are willing to put in the time because they prefer the in-person classes to the online classes. Several of our locals up here are asking for in-person classes for their kids because of the more in-depth coverage of material, quizzing, and testing we provide. You are correct that there is a backlog of online students and we offer several online field days May-October, including some 2/day online classes (morning and afternoon) when the weather is cool enough. At the same time, AGFD is encouraging all instructor teams to get back to in-person classes as much as possible, while still catering to the need for online field days. All of the requests we've had up here for in-person classes is why I was perplexed that nobody had signed up even after we advertised it 3 weeks ago. And, to be perfectly honest, we see much better test scores and material retention from kids who take the in-person class vs those who take the online class. We have much less need to provide test corrections to get kids passing grades in the in-person class compared to the online class.
It certainly can be, but we break it up with rotations. between chapters taught. We break all classes up into three groups for Saturday and the field day. We have the AGFD room split with a divider for Saturday and rotate between each side, pulse the lobby so kids aren't sitting in the same seat all day. Throw in plenty of breaks, an hour lunch with a test review, and plenty of jokes, and the day flies by. The kids get plenty of time and opportunities to blow off steam and pent-up silliness and wiggles. On top of that, we rarely, if ever, go until 5 pm. We reserve the conference room for all day just in case there is a kid who needs extra help with their test. We just don't want parents showing up too early to get their kids and I'm personally communicating constantly with parents and students so they know what's happening and what to expect. We've never gotten any negative feedback from kids or parents about the length of the day or how our classes are scheduled. I've even had parents tell me they appreciate the opportunity to have a day to themselves.
