I actually had a pretty great first communications class -- it was dual-enrolled with a pretty killer teacher, back in high school. We were occasionally threatened with a wooden prop sword. Then I had to withdraw from the second one (with the same teacher) because between its piece choices -- which were frankly making depression issues notably worse, and is largely what triggered my current general-distaste for "classic" literature* -- and other things I ended up switching over to the local adult school and more-or-less teaching myself the last half-semester of high school. Which was basically the best pre-college school experience of my life, but whatev'.
Later took the second course again and basically coasted through it because that first teacher was quite awesome. Continued to mostly carry me straight up through the bachelors, with a little bit of tweaking for some of the later philosophy assignments.
* I got really goddamn sick of "Poor sex, death, and bigotry." Which is how I summarize the majority of classic style literature. For all that the skill involved in great literature is pretty impressive, it gets boring** thematically bloody fast.
** And honestly frustrating, because no, I don't want to bury myself in conceptual sewage 24/7. You don't have to drown in the banal view of the human condition to get the freaking point. Give me happy sex, adventure, and interesting set pieces, plox.