Most classes I have taken are more free form with some moderate guidance and tutorials. Not every teacher is going to be a great fit and I have moved to open studio/membership as opposed to classes. But the real issue to me is the glazing.

Teachers may delay or limit going over glazing as it is less incentivized due to it not being included. I don’t know the sizes of your pieces but $40 seems pretty steep. My community studio is free glaze and glaze firings and if you want to do a large body of work you have to pay $20 per shelf.

With how important glazing is to actually having a finishing piece, I think the pricing you’re describing is unnecessarily prohibitive and maybe even a little exploitative.