No Free Lunch

About a year ago, a friend was taking a handgun class from a major training facility. He posted word on social media, asking if anyone else wanted to join him - the benefit being he had already paid for lodging.  There were a couple of interested responses. When they found out the cost of the class ($500), they were no longer interested. One even said, "oh, I thought it would be free."

Folks, you get what you pay for.  

Believe it or not, I have actually attended a free gun class. Although there was a semblance of a syllabus and structure, it was not run well at all.  The information was significantly less than one receives in a paid class.   And this class was 4 hours lecture, range for 20 minutes each. 

Which begs the question - what are you paying for in a paid class?

Instruction
A professional instructor will have a good syllabus, expertise in that field, ability, and a method to the teaching.  Additionally, while it's your first class, so you think it's all new, he has seen all of this dozens of times.

Syllabus
Yes, this is different from instruction.  The course framework has to fit together.  It has to teach a specific lesson from the ground up.  

Standardization
Lets take targets, for example (target stands and backers, too). Sure, you could have a "free" class and ask folks to bring their own.  You can even "reccomend" or "require" certain targets.  But rest assured, folks will buy and bring different targets. Or no targets at all - "I forgot!"

Suppose you have a handout.  You could send an electronic one to folks ahead of class and ask they print it and bring it.  And 1 out of 3 will actually do that.   And the other 2/3rds will ask "do you have an extra one, I forgot." (starting to see a trend?)

What about insurance? You could require everyone buy a per-use event liability. Again, a few would and most would "forget." And some would sign waivers saying they had personal health insurance and they actually don't.

Ancillary items - loaner guns, eye protection, ear protection, extra materials to make class go better.  All of these things a professional paid class will have that a free one just won't. 


So just remember - you get what you pay for and there's no free lunch.