18 yr old Instructor

[AzAtty]

Experience does not necessarily mean a person will be a good teacher. Yesterday I heard about a 17 year old who has summited the highest peaks on each continent (including Everest, naturally). Experienced? Certainly appears so. Is he capable of teaching? I don't know. An instructor not only needs experience, but needs the ability to meaningfully translate that experience into material capable of being understood, accepted, and implemented by another. Most--but definitely not all--18-year olds I know lack that ability.

 

[tk trekers]

Very interesting post.

I think I would want to talk with him/her first to try and get a better understanding of how they came to be an instructor at such a young age. I would then go on to the experience level and training that he/she has taken, especially their practical dive history. As many people have mentioned, this person could have hundreds of dives in varying conditions under their belt already. I see many young people graduating college at young ages and though there may be an immaturity issue with certain professions, they seem to be poised to really make a positive contribution to society in their chosen fields. Would this person be any different? I think not.

On the negative side, training and experience aside, I think a lot of people would have the close-minded attitude that no young person can teach me anything.

On the way more positive side of this, I think a young instructor would be very passionate about diving and if they have the ability to impart this passion to others, and my own children come to mind when I think about this, that the divers he/she trains may also have that passion and excitability that I see lacking in some of the instructors I have seen that are borderline burned out. I also think that a young instructor would appeal to the younger divers-to-be and would develop quite a following assuring many more advanced training opportunities in the future.

So yes, if I felt comfortable with him/her I would train with him/her and I would allow my children to train with him/her.

 

[Cave Diver]

I happened to hear about an instructor that is 18 years old in my area. His father is a technical instructor and a course director.

My question is. Do you think that instructor should have some time of actual diving experience before he can be awarded this title? (like a pilot flights hours)

How do we now that he doesnt have any actual diving experience?

Would you train with him ? (assume you only know the age and no other positive or negative info about him)

NO!

If I was an intructor I would never train anyone without knowing a little more about them. When I started taking more advanced/technical classes, every instructor I had "interviewed" me as to what my motivation was towards that type of diving.

So, to agree or deny someone training based soley on age is doing them a disservice.

 

[sabbath999]

I happened to hear about an instructor that is 18 years old in my area. His father is a technical instructor and a course director.

My question is. Do you think that instructor should have some time of actual diving experience before he can be awarded this title? (like a pilot flights hours)

Would you train with him ? (assume you only know the age and no other positive or negative info about him)

The lead character in the book I am writing is a 16 year old rescue diver with about 1000 logged dives since he was 10 (his uncle owns a dive charter)... I carefully did the math (giving him 2 dives a day summer and weekends) and he actually could have had many more than that... that only averages out to 83 days per year of diving with two-a-day dives (not even every day over a summer vacation, let alone Christmas vacations and weekends).

Simply an FYI.

 

[Garrobo]

The answer to the first question is: "YES". The answer to the second question is:"NO".

 

[boulderjohn]

Sophocles asked a similar question a couple of millenia ago in Antigone. Here is a part of an argument between Haemon and his father, Creon. Creon's first line is spoken to the chorus leader, who has cautioned Creon that Haemon had spoken wisely:

CREON
Men of my age, are we indeed to be schooled, then, by men of his?
HAEMON
In nothing that is not right; but if I am young, you should look to my merits, not to my years.

By the way, Creon learns to his utter regret that Haeman was indeed correct, and by not listening to him he loses everything.

 

[sabbath999]

Sophocles asked a similar question a couple of millenia ago in Antigone. Here is a part of an argument between Haemon and his father, Creon. Creon's first line is spoken to the chorus leader, who has cautioned Creon that Haemon had spoken wisely:

By the way, Creon learns to his utter regret that Haeman was indeed correct, and by not listening to him he loses everything.

I wonder if Sophocles dove a BP/W or a jacket BCD....

 

[Teamcasa]

I happened to hear about an instructor that is 18 years old
....
Would you train with him ? (assume you only know the age and no other positive or negative info about him)

I would not train with any instructor without first checking their references and reputation, regardless of their age.

 

[boulderjohn]

I wonder if Sophocles dove a BP/W or a jacket BCD....

I believe he used the original Halcyon bronze backplate, which cost him a little more than two months of his salary as a priest of Dionysus. (Amazingly, with the change of materials, the price has stayed relatively constant.)

 

[Teamcasa]

The lead character in the book I am writing is a 16 year old rescue diver with about 1000 logged dives

I had 200 or 300, (I'm not near my old logbooks) by 20. I dived with kid that had 1200 dives logged by his 21 birthday. It's not all that rare.