Why does every new diver want to be an instructor?

[SeaSoulSelf]

And I just got my invitation to a Go Pro night in my email... :blinking:

My husband got certified first, yet I would say I am the one who became the dive fanatic. We took AOW because of the change in PADI requirements. I took Rescue to understand how better to recognize and react in an emergency or difficult situation as we expand our dive horizons. Additionally, I wanted to learn how to help someone correctly and safely, if needed. That doesn't mean I plan to strap a cape on my tank and save the diving world.

Speaking as someone who is landlocked and chained to a cubicle, I can understand why many new divers want to "live the dream". PADI is pretty aggressive with their marketing and people want to live the fantasy. The reality of herding a gaggle of vacation divers may not enter their minds.

Although I enjoy learning by reading most anything related to diving, history, medical topics, etc... I'd rather just dive more instead of pursuing DM or Instructor certs.

 

[Mustard Dave]

Here I do disagree. I don't teach commercially, but I do consider myself a professional instructor.

Kind regards

I know where you're coming from, but you're using it as an adjective, i.e. to behave in a professional manner, whereas the manner in which PADI use it seems to be the noun form, i.e. somebody who earns money from a particular activity (of course, a competent paid instructor should be able to describe themselves in both senses of the word).

 

[Colliam7]

PADI's business model: glamorize being an instructor > put more instructors out there > more instructors means more certification fees, student materials, lost c-cards, c-card upgrades, etc

I had to chuckle! I am reading Christi’s ‘rant’ about the business model of glamorizing being an instructor (some very good points, by the way, so 'rant' is not a criticism), and my eyes landed on something just above the post. Toward the top of the screen - right above the first post on the page and right below the SB forum menu items, so it was right in front of my eyes - was a conspicuous banner add, from Utila Dive Center

Become a PADI Scuba Instructor
Amazing Promo 2013
Free Prep, PADI O2, and IAHD
Instructor courses, plus certs, with MSDT

If you click on the ad it takes you to a GoPro Utila screen with not just one but three promotional packages (one of which offers you the opportunity to not only learn to dive sidemount but become a sidemount instructor, for a reduced fee, as part of the overall GoPro package! Cool.).

Folks, this is free enterprise. There is A LOT of marketing that goes on out there, and there are MANY dive agnecies that do it. PADI just happens to be pretty effective, at least based on sales. And, UDC is a particularly effective example of one PADI affiliate. I mean this as no criticism of them at all, and I have seen thoughtful posts from at least one UDC-affiliated instructor on SB in the past. Rather, this is the world in which we live.

This is a scuba forum and there is a biased sample of divers represented here - biased in that it is populated by people who care enough about diving to join a bulletin board, and take the time to post. But, this same discussion could easily be held on an aviation forum. Yes, there are pilot 'mills', and flight instructor 'mills', and plenty of credentialing / certification packages out there for a fee, and you can be a flying ZTH just as you can be a diving ZTH. And, by the way, do you ONLY want to be a CFI? Or, do you want to add a credential and be a CFII (instrument instructor)? And, why do you want to stop at single engine instructor, when for a few additional hours (and a few additional $1000 in readily available loans), you can get you a multi-engine rating and a multi-engine instructor rating, even though your entire body of multi-engine experience is in your training and check ride.

This could easily be a secondary school education forurm - the evolution of 'standards' in public schools brings an entire new meaning to the concept of 'dumbing down' (and an entirely new level of despair about the future of civilization, but that is another matter).

And, if you don't think that marketing is pervasive in public education, you are naive. My son is a vet student at a fairly well-know / respected European university. As a first year student in a 5 year curriculum, he and his classmates were already receiving formal in-class encouragement from faculty to consider staying an extra, 6th, year, to get a Ph.D. in addition to their DVM. As a university faculty member, I regularly encouraged undergraduate students to consider graduate education - we wanted to have a big graduate education program.

Sure, we are dismissive of McDonald's or Wendy's workers asking, 'Do you want fries with that?' Do we even recognize that the same thing goes on in supposedly respected professions ('Would you like a Ph.D. with that?'), beyond fast food and diving? Marketing is a growth industry ('Would you like a MBA with that?').

Several other interesting points have been made in this thread:

The new instructor only cares about getting his/her student counts up

A good, and fair, point, although 'only' may be a little strong. I confess, when I was a newly minted OWSI, what I cared most about was teaching my first OW course, as soon as possible, while everything was fresh in my mind - notice I didn't saying 'producing my first group of competent, certified divers'. After my first two OW classes, I started thinking about the next step for me, not because of anything that PADI did, but because of my own desire to 'advance' in whatever I am doing - 'OK, I need to get 25 certs, and I need to get instructor credentials in 5 specialties, so I can apply for MSDT' - notice I didn't say, 'I want to produce 25 outstanding dvers, and I want to become a Deep Diver Specialty Instructor because I really enjoy diving to depth, and I really think I can share aome unique insights about the challenges of deep diving', etc.

The good news, for me at least, and I suspect for many others, is that along the way I found myself becoming more interested in a) what was necessary to be an effective instructor, b) what was important to become a good instructor, c) what I could do differently to enhance my instruction (e.g. arrange for videography of my students - first in AOW and then in OW - so they could see what they looked like, not just hear me try to verbally describe it), d) what I could add to my instruction (e.g. emphasis on finning techniques) to produce a better diver, and e) what I could learn by watching other instructors (good and bad), just to name a few. (Unfortunately, I also found that to be a never-ending process, and as an instructor I am a 'work in progress'.)

Yes, I see some pretty lousy dive instruction going on - across multiple agencies - by people who seem to have no clue how to teach diving (or how to dive, for that matter - 'In leading my OW students around the quarry on Dive 1, I will demonstrate my outstanding 'instructor-ness' by swimming 6 inches above the bottom and using a powerful, well-developed flutter kick with enough downward thrust to silt out the entire quarry!'), But, I also see some enthusiastic, newer instructors working to improve / perfect their instructional technique. But, I don't necessarily have a problem with the new diver, interested in becoming a instructor. I don't have a problem with the new instructor, interested in getting their cert numbers up or interested in looking at the next step up the instructor ladder. We all start somewhere, and that is a phase that many of us go through. But, I see als enough good dive instruction going on, by seasoned instructors who have gotten past the numbers game and started thinking about how to be a better instructor, and by new instructors brimming with passion for diving even if they are a bit coarse as an instructor, to give me cause for hope.

Public education, on the other hand, may be another matter entirely.

 

[fjpatrum]

Yes it could. I just HATE that. Divemasters are considered (referred to as---) Pros. "Pros" means "Paid". Period. But all you SB guys know my feelings on that. Professionals get paid, period. If you work for free, you are NOT a "Pro"...

While I agree with the sentiment that one should get paid for their work, I disagree entirely on the last sentence I quoted.

I've said it before "professional" is an attitude, not an income level. If you act professionally, you are a professional at what you're doing, be it DM, instructor, boat driver, or whatever-- no matter how much money you're earning by doing so. If you act unprofessionally, you are not a pro, no matter what your title says or your income is.

I worked as a "professional volunteer" ground search and rescue team member for over a decade. I was most certainly considered a professional SAR team member by my team and all the parent organizations and legal authorities involved in missing persons searches but I never got paid a dime. In fact, I often paid fair chunks of my own money to be part of such an organization, through dues, travel fees, equipment purchases etc.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Great points, Colliam7.

I'm glad you intended "no criticism" of UDC. I think they're a class act. Yes, they could be called a certification mill. But it occurs to me that maybe the quality of their instruction is actually sharpened by virtue of constantly teaching as well as the teaching atmosphere that permeates the place. I believe that most people who dive with UDC are there to take a course. It's like a little college campus of diving, complete with the social aspect of a college campus. Anyway, I know that quality of instruction wasn't your point, and you even added the emphatic "no criticism intended." So take this comment as a mere footnote, not as disagreement.

I might add that when, in a post above, responding to comments from others that they haven't noticed a disproportionate number of newly minted OW divers expressing an interest in working professionally as a DM or instructor, I mentioned that I had met quite a few, I had in mind some that I had met at UDC. A not-unusual scenario at UDC is a diver comes for OW certification with no plan beyond that, gets hooked, and ends up staying on for months. But after a few months of diving every day, the diver has several hundred dives and a whole lot of diving and teaching experience. So I am reluctant to criticize UDC's model as "zero to hero." I suspect there are places in, say, Thailand where it is similar.

 

[robertarak]

... But after a few months of diving every day, the diver has several hundred dives and a whole lot of diving and teaching experience. ...

Several hundred dives, or several dives a hundred times?

 

[h2ogypsy]

---------- Post added January 24th, 2013 at 02:59 PM ----------

Just as we are bored and tired of new divers that think that they are as adept as someone who has devoted their lives to perfecting skills and techniques in a myriad of environments and equating that to zero to hero status.

Maybe those new divers will also strive to devoting their lives at perfecting their skills and techniques! I admire you and anyone else who does that, let us remember, we are all different and we do what we do for different reasons and goals. I do admit that their are some (probably many) that should just put the regulator down and maybe take up basketball or something, but everyone should at least be given the chance to try and not be talked down to by those that think of themselves as diving heros.

. Happy and safe diving to you; thanks for your post.

 

[InTheDrink]

To give a slightly different slant - and I've seen plenty of fairly spastic instructors - I came across a DM in Malta a few years ago. 65 dives. He was exceptionally good. Some kids have it, fair play.

I've known others that want to become and DM or instructor but it clearly falls into the realm of childish fantasy.

Personally I love to teach (and learn) but I would never want to be a DM or Instructor.

Hell is DSDs.

 

[TMHeimer]

While I agree with the sentiment that one should get paid for their work, I disagree entirely on the last sentence I quoted.

I've said it before "professional" is an attitude, not an income level. If you act professionally, you are a professional at what you're doing, be it DM, instructor, boat driver, or whatever-- no matter how much money you're earning by doing so. If you act unprofessionally, you are not a pro, no matter what your title says or your income is.

IMO, two different definitions of the word. "Acting professionally" as opposed to unprofessionally is sort of an attitude one has toward whatever task one is doing. Professional with regard to an occupation, IMO means getting paid--as in a career: Dr., lawyer, teacher, etc. Truck drivers may not have degrees, but they are "professional" drivers--they get paid. The Band I play in is a "semi-professional" concert band. The professionals get paid, the students and amateurs don't. Occasionally you may find one of the "amateurs" who may be equal or even better than the odd professional. But they're not pros if they don't get paid. Many musicans are professional, but not members of the union, but there is a union PADI refers to instructors and DMs as professionals, and in that it is related to a (posssible) career, I would say these professionals all should be paid. No biggee--probably just a matter of semantics.

I worked as a "professional volunteer" ground search and rescue team member for over a decade. I was most certainly considered a professional SAR team member by my team and all the parent organizations and legal authorities involved in missing persons searches but I never got paid a dime. In fact, I often paid fair chunks of my own money to be part of such an organization, through dues, travel fees, equipment purchases etc.

Well, we just disagree. Some community bands collect fees from members so they can participate. Pros don't pay to play, they get paid. I do agree that once in a while you run into a professional musician who's skills leave somewhat to be desired. He is still a professional, albeit not a very good or dedicated one.

Sorry, I messed up my reply--the big paragraph starting with IMO is mine.

 

[jm]

I don't think that everyone starts out wanting to be a dive instructor. I simply wanted to get certified. My wife also felt the same way. I took Advanced and Rescue to expand my knowledge, on the road to improving my dive skills. Once we joined a dive club, I had the opportunity to help with students under the supervision of an instructor. It was more of a glorified safety diver/ pool deck help position than in water assistant. I found that I really enjoyed doing so because it was an interesting and rewarding experience watching people grow into divers.
I decided that it would be nice to actually work with students so Teaching Assistant or Divemaster certification would be required. As it turned out, I ended up doing the instructor course after about a year of helping as a Divemaster because of practicality. Once you have made the investment in both time and money to become a Divemaster, you may as well continue and complete the instructor cert.This allows you to use the current books and materials you have. Waiting until later may require acquiring new updated material, which isn’t cheap. Plus, once you earn Divemaster you are ( or should be) at the level for skills demonstration that you will need to pass the instructor evaluation. If you wait until years later to complete the instructor course you may need to repeat your prior efforts to regain demonstration level skills. Besides, I was working with an excellent Course Director and had both the money and time to complete it. I have learned in life that opportunity can be elusive thus sometimes it is best to seize it when it presents itself to you. If I had waited until now I wouldn't have the time or money to complete it.
Overall, becoming an instructor seemed to be sensible decision to me. I just never envisioned it when my wife and I got certified many years ago.