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=====Assumptions=====
There are many great opportunities for realization and insight ahead, but
there are  also many obstacles  standing in the way  of you staying  on a
path of success.  I find that uncommunicated assumptions can  play a role
in hampering  progress, so  please ensure  you are  suitably read  up and
aware of my assumptions coming into the course, along with my assumptions
of  your assumptions,  playing the  role  of a  studious student  seeking
enlightenment.

Let's also  make sure we  are on the  same playing field  by establishing
some definitions:

**__student__**: A  student is  primarily a person  enrolled in  a school
or  other  educational  institution  and   who  is  under  learning  with
goals  of  acquiring  knowledge,  developing  professions  and  achieving
easy  employment  at  a  particular  field. In  the  broader  sense,  **a
student is  anyone who applies  themselves to the  intensive intellectual
engagement  with  some  matter  necessary  to  master  it**  as  part  of
some  practical  affair in  which  such  mastery  is basic  or  decisive.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student)

While a decent definition, I would argue  that it falls short by not also
indicating  certain things  that should  be  stated, so  herein are  some
further assumptions:

  * a student, entering into the  educational environment of a particular class or degree of study (especially at the undergraduate level where we reside), **DOES  NOT** need to have any prior  experience with the subject matter. That  is: if you are taking a  course on introductory programming in  a certain  language, the student  is not  expected to know  how to  program in  that  specific language  (and depending  on prerequisites to the course, may not even need to know anything about programming at the introductory level).

  * to learn  something means you  don't know it. Not  knowing something, there's a state  of not understanding, and not being  aware of what a particular thing  or concept is.  A student  taking a class  to learn something necessarily  needs to  be in active  pursuit of  gaining an understanding,  but is  not expecting  to come  in knowing  anything.  Learning  is often  a  mistake-ridden process  of  bumping around  in progressively less  conceptually dark  spaces as patterns  are sussed out and intuitive connections are established. We learn best from our mistakes, so  a student that does  not make mistakes, or  that avoids opportunities to make mistakes, isn't being a good student.

  * learning  is  build  upon   an  ever-growing  foundation  (your  life experience   and  knowledge,   some  derivation   of  society's   and civilization's collective  body of experience and  knowledge), and to be eligible to take a college class, yes, SOME prerequisite knowledge is assumed, namely:
      * you know how to and can/will read (input/consume)
      * you know how to and can/will write (output/create/produce)
      * you know how to and can/will do math/computations
      * you know how to and can/will think
      * you know how to and can/will ask questions

  * a  student's  (or learner's)  absolute  BEST  tool is  the  question, specifically the  regular asking  of them. You  NEED to  be regularly engaging  yourself and  the class  with questions,  and responses  to questions. No two  people perceive something the same  exact way. One explanation  is  not ideal  for  every  individual. If  an  available explanation falls short with respect to being clarifying or promoting understanding, you should ask a question. If an available explanation is clarifying,  but then  upon further  thought creates  confusion or makes you wonder about other,  potentially related things: YOU SHOULD ALSO ASK a question.

The benefit  of authentic  education is  that it  transitions one  from a
state of predominantly not knowing what they don't know, to a state where
while they may know  that they know more than they  did before, also then
cultivates an important  perception of then KNOWING that  they don't know
even more things.

Education isn't  about certainty or comfort  in attaining a set  of facts
and  calling it  quits: It  is  about coming  to terms  with the  endless
uncertainty of possible things that can be pursued or known. We can never
know everything,  but we CAN know  that we can never  know everything. We
instead strive for a functioning subset  where we learn enough to give us
a foundation  in the  present, and  consistently keep  learning (although
hopefully  less so  exclusively  in  a classroom  as  time  goes by,  but
instead by  the individual  having gained enough  experience to  become a
self-learner) to keep up with the demands of tomorrow.

So, as a student learner embarking  upon and taking this class, know that
I don't  assume you know  anything about the  course you are  taking, and
that you will be reading and  thinking and doing and computing and asking
questions regularly  so that by  the conclusion  of the course,  you will
have  some greater  idea of  the nature  of what  was encountered  in the
class.

If you  don't want  to ask  questions, for whatever  reason, nor  want to
bother  with expanding  your  horizons, in   learning  new and  different
concepts  and ways  of doing  things  (ie you  want to  remain small  and
stagnant), then I would urge you  to reconsider taking this course: it is
NOT a daycare to keep your mind  and hands pacified. It is an educational
environment where you will be tasked to grow and improve.
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