Thanks all. Appreciate the feedback and thoughtful responses from many!
A few thoughts to follow up on this.
Lorenzoid said "I see in one of your later posts here that you are considering one-on-one or at least more personalized instruction in the future, and I think that's the ticket. For someone who is highly educated, analytical, inquisitive, dedicated, etc., the basic OW class can be mind-numbing if conducted as yours seems to be."
Tursiops said "OP, you've had many posts on SB. Your needs and attitudes suggest a private class with a good instructor. Sure, it will cost more. But that will meet your (high) expectations."
I agree with this. I don't want to bash any class, agency, or shops. Honestly, it was a bad night for them, and once its remedied, I think it will be "fine". But it did make me all the more aware of the deficit between my expectations and what may be possible here. If things had gone smoothly, I may have left disappointed by not frustrated and coming to SB to post.
I know some other students were frustrated based on a brief post class chat with a few. I'm sure others didn't care. But even the ones whom I talked to, their attitude was more "well, 1 down, only 4 to go!" Which indicates a "get it over with" attitude. Mine was the opposite reaction. "Lost 1 chance, hopefully 4 more chances to get my moneys worth".
I think I would be content had the class been run competently. But with reflection now, I think what I most *ACTUALLY WANT* for my training is not to hit a standards checklist, it's to learn as absolutely much as possible, as thoroughly as possible, at a level much higher than the minimum standard.
Assuming I finish out this course, will it be hard for me to make up for missed depth and thoroughness of training by going with a better personal instructor POST course?
Jim - thanks for the detailed response. Sounds like some good tips in your book! Though to be fair, by the time I started reading anything of the sort about Scuba I had already signed up for a class. I imagine this would be common for most any new diver. When you first look to get into scuba, without an already existing mentor, the thought is "look online to find the best rated local shop", talk to a friend who has also been certified locally, and roll with it is really all there is. If I hadn't poured so many hours into pre class study, I wouldn't even know other agencies exist, other instruction options exist, or how big of a deal it is to get good training.
I have learned a ton since I signed up a month ago online and through books, etc. I imagine very few people do this. I already own and have been browsing around through "Deco for Divers" (as well as a handful of other books) and made over 80 posts on SB... Before my OW class even started. I imagine I am the exception to the rule here. Had I known what I know now, I would have hired a local well respected personal instructor. Unfortunately, it seems the best of these don't really advertise online, so unless you are ALREADY IN THE KNOW before you even sign up for a course, you miss this.
P
ossible suggestion - do you have a website setup, and tagged with metadata so that you can hit a first result on google with people search for "SCUBA training [cityname]". Idea for you: create an info landing website, tag it with all the most common searches people do for looking for local scuba courses, and then offer up your chapter on "what to look for in training" for free on your website. Then have a link directly to amazon for your book. Not only could this help new divers, but it would likely boost book sales.
Cuzza - agree with your self reliance independent outlook on students responsibility. Also 100% agree with DoctorMike. While the mask issue was a minor issue I get what you are saying - I am my own best advocate, etc. - at the same time, a student, even the best student, simply won't know what they don't know until they know it. A certain level of trust and dependency on the professional you are paying to train you is not only to be expected, but its actually to be
required to learn anything. Imagine being a teacher and having a student who would argue with everything you told them and not listen. That's being unteachable. I asked, he told me, I asked again and clarified, he insisted. What else was I to do? Snorkeling experience is irrelevant here, because you aren't submerged. I was told the pressure would hold it in. It didn't. Should I have gotten into argument after already asking twice? Here's the thing, the instructor may have actually been right. As I understand from my reading, mask pressures get increasingly tighter with depth - yes? Perhaps at 20 feet my mask would have been just right and not leaked and the instructor was bang on. But we were doing pool drills at about 3 feet under, which probably didn't have enough pressure to seal the mask in the way he was, in his overly hurried state, thinking it would. This could have been solved if he took more time to seriously examine my concern and wasn't in such a rush.
Anyway, thanks for the encouragement and feedback all. I will respectfully chat with the shop to figure out what's normal going forward and what my options are. Likely that the future classes will be better in the future and that I'll stick with this course and work with it, and then look for some more advanced level and personal level training for all of my future training. If I'm not feeling it though after next time and I have options, I will be open to exploring the option of dropping out and going with a personal instructor locally.