Want to learn and get experience on a sailboat.

Go to your local yacht club, and hang around a bit. Wednesday nights are typically informal race nights, and people are always looking for crew.
Good place to start.

Yup, sailboaters are nice guys.

Pretty much the best way to go that I've ever found. The clubs will often have a list of crew looking for rides and owners looking for crew... just get in touch, add your name, and they find a boat for you to get on.

You are right on the money. I got started with an invite on a race boat, and the owner turned out to be a "Screamer". You know what I mean. But, it was all good, because everything afterward was pleasurable.
Trial-by-fire. The learning process. That's life.
Warning to dontrumps: sailors are known to partake in vast quantities of.... RUM.

I used to race out of the St Francis Yacht Club in SFO. There was always a need for crew -- and I was young and stupid. Fortunately there were those who would not just tell what to do but why it needs to be done. One reason to start out buying a small sailboat is that they are not subtle. You screw up and they punish you instantly. Bigger boats can be a little sneaky - they can let a problem develop and then OH, &%#@!
Of course, there is the argument that you should not waste time and money. Just jump in with your check book and buy big, first time out. If you do you are going to need help, and probably never learn a lot of good stuff.

So you have some basic idea of what you are doing I would suggest an informal sailing class and a couple of experiences on very small boats. Is there a decent small boat rental operation in your area?

You can make big mistakes while learning on a very small boats, without dire consequences....ha...ha. And you can experiment/experience.

Quite some years ago I've owned a few 'off-the beach' small boat operations. We taught a lot of first time sailors how to sail out and return to the rental location, and they subsequently returned to the rental operation over and over again as they learned something new each time. We even had one fellow in St Thomas who started as a child with us and grew into an international and Olympic sailor.

Small sailboats are more fun too IMHO

Depends on who your sailing with.....