I grok your point, but will make a mild counter argument.
Networking classes alone would not give you any value in this case. In fact, they'd give you negative value because the real world never works like the text book, and offering advice that you yourself have not applied in practice is bad form.
I never finished Cisco networking classes either. I never really started them in the first place. I did however help develop the training and certification program for the Ascend/Lucent Certified Technical Expert course. That was after I already had about 8 years of daily hands-on LAN and WAN design and administration (late 90's timeframe). I was able to do that because I had been in the bowels of everything from a local travel agent office network to some of the worlds largest datacenters and NAPs (at the time).
Don't wish for network classes, instead spend some time with actual equipment, a copy of Wireshark, and some time on network admin forums/groups. Go work for a local ISP for even 6 months. You'll learn more about LAN/WAN networking in that time than in most formal network courses.
We had a full network setup where I took them, with a fair amount of real hardware (of varying manufacturers even [a few AdTran boxes]). Perhaps that is a rarity, I'm not sure. :)
Part of the reason for my response is a bit of a personal nit, I guess. I come across a lot of talented and capable people who seem to feel that they need someone else to verify their skills. Schools and training programs and certs are all well and good for some people, but those things take time and money. Time and money that might be better invested on self-learning, or taking a mid-level job at a salary less than you are worth but such that your net income is still ahead of where you would be if you were going to school, and using that job as a learning/advancement opportunity. I'll take a guy with a GED and 4 years on an ISP tech support position before a guy with a Bachelors, 3 Cisco certs and no work experience in many cases. (YMMV).
The higher-ed/certification thing is so ingrained in so many people that I believe people do not often stop to consider the alternatives frequently enough. OR, they are led to believe that these degrees and certs are universally respected and the gate keepers to better career opportunities. This is of course not true.
My main point is that it's never too late to learn something new, and depending on how you personally develop new skills, the best approach may be non-traditional.
When you're the guy with a B.A. and work experience in ISP call centres, Cisco certs are a handy way of not getting your C.V. thrown out by H.R. drones :-)
(Not that I got any in the end, someone who didn't care employed me first. But they make sense for a reasonably large group of people)
Networking classes alone would not give you any value in this case. In fact, they'd give you negative value because the real world never works like the text book, and offering advice that you yourself have not applied in practice is bad form.
I never finished Cisco networking classes either. I never really started them in the first place. I did however help develop the training and certification program for the Ascend/Lucent Certified Technical Expert course. That was after I already had about 8 years of daily hands-on LAN and WAN design and administration (late 90's timeframe). I was able to do that because I had been in the bowels of everything from a local travel agent office network to some of the worlds largest datacenters and NAPs (at the time).
Don't wish for network classes, instead spend some time with actual equipment, a copy of Wireshark, and some time on network admin forums/groups. Go work for a local ISP for even 6 months. You'll learn more about LAN/WAN networking in that time than in most formal network courses.