Bitterness of Scuba Instructors

[Dan G]

Until I started participating on the Scuba Board forum, I was unaware that there was this pervasive bitterness on the part of scuba instructors toward their students.

There seems to be hostility toward incompetence, a sort of arrogance, among many of the posters here. Most of the instructors on this forum are as nice as could be, but many seem to have a certain resentment or hostility, for some reason.

Any idea where this comes from?

I wonder if it has to do with their clientele making more money than they do. I understand that scuba instruction is not very well compensated, whereas the expenses associated with scuba diving make it a sport more likely to be practiced by those with comfortable incomes.

I think we need to remember that Matt's first post was about the difficulty he had with his Open Water. From what I remember, the instructor was less than helpful when Matt was having difficulties. A first experience like this will frame our opinions quite easily. That experience, plus some less than friendly responses here result in the OP.

That being said, I put in bold a sentence that, while not outside the TOS, is baiting. No less baiting than, "you should have learned that in your OW," or "do a search."

 

[boulderjohn]

In my semi-retired state, I consult on the subject of online education, which used to be my full time profession. In training teachers on the art of online communication, I emphasized how very easy it is to have your tone intercommunicated in messages. In real life the inflection in your voice and the appearance of your face is an important part of communication, but that is lost in this medium. It is especially a problem when people are in a hurry. An online teacher with a pile of questions to answer in a limited amount of time may hurry to much, supplying the needed answer as quickly as possible before moving to the next one. In those circumstances, it is very easy to come across as rude and dismissive, even though you have no intention of being that way.

I think the same is true on forums like ScubaBoard, and even though I teach this concept, I am too often guilty of it myself. I am always amazed that Bob generally manages to maintain such a friendly tone given the volume of his daily posts.

I would also like to agree fully with Bob about the absurdity of drawing any conclusions because of the ratio of posts to dives. Some of the most experienced divers on ScubaBoard have a far higher post to dive ratio than you do. It would not take a lot of time daily to make a dozen posts a day for a week, and that many dives would constitute an extremely good year for most divers.

 

[vladimir]

Any idea where this comes from?

I wonder if it has to do with their clientele making more money than they do.

Probably—I get the same attitude from a lot of doctors.

 

[simskiscuba]

Matt, Just as an aside; I was wondering how many Scuba Instructors work as French Waiters in their primary job...........
Just thinking out loud.

 

[Steve50]

Does anyone else think that bitterness on the part of scuba instructors toward their students is pervasive ?

 

[Hawkwood]

Steve50,

I am not "bitter" towards my students, nor are the instructors that I personally know. However, with the use of the word "pervasive" we've all be lumped together. Did anybody actually think of the term "pervasive" in the context it has been used. Do we really have people thinking that "bitterness" towards students is "spread throughout" instructors?

Bill

 

[dmoore19]

The highlighted part is true. I have found this to be true when communicating with email. They can come across completely different than intended. Without sensing the inflection in someones voice and facial expressions things can go awry quickly.

In my semi-retired state, I consult on the subject of online education, which used to be my full time profession. In training teachers on the art of online communication, I emphasized how very easy it is to have your tone intercommunicated in messages. In real life the inflection in your voice and the appearance of your face is an important part of communication, but that is lost in this medium. It is especially a problem when people are in a hurry. An online teacher with a pile of questions to answer in a limited amount of time may hurry to much, supplying the needed answer as quickly as possible before moving to the next one. In those circumstances, it is very easy to come across as rude and dismissive, even though you have no intention of being that way.

I think the same is true on forums like ScubaBoard, and even though I teach this concept, I am too often guilty of it myself. I am always amazed that Bob generally manages to maintain such a friendly tone given the volume of his daily posts.

I would also like to agree fully with Bob about the absurdity of drawing any conclusions because of the ratio of posts to dives. Some of the most experienced divers on ScubaBoard have a far higher post to dive ratio than you do. It would not take a lot of time daily to make a dozen posts a day for a week, and that many dives would constitute an extremely good year for most divers.

 

[scubafanatic]

Isn't there an SB app whereby you can program a 'smiley' to auto populate at the end of every post ? Just go into your SB 'profile', check the "I'm very sensitive' checkbox, and enable the 'auto-smiley' feature ?

 

[FPDocMatt]

It's a fine line to be friendly without becoming irrelevant. Disagreements, sometimes even sharp disagreements are what fuels our forum.

You seem to be saying that strong disagreement implies impoliteness, meanness or hostility. I strongly disagree. (See? That wasn't impolite, mean or hostile.)

Sometimes people express their opinion of the person rather than the idea and that's when the ToS is usually crossed.

This is a very good guideline. There is some rudeness which is not ad hominem (such as RTFM), but by and large the vast majority of rudeness is.

Again, some people feel that any criticism is against the ToS (especially when it comes from me ) and that's just silly.

Doesn't seem silly to me at all. I guess it depends on what you mean by criticism. If I say, "The way you teach is dangerous", that's criticism of the way somebody does something, but it isn't criticism of the person. If I say, "You're an unsafe scuba instructor", that's unnecessarily rude.

Unfortunately, you can criticize the person obliquely. That's where the hostility and arrogance are able to squeeze in under the radar of the ToS.

But frankly, it would take me about 30 minutes to do a search of this forum and find 10 examples of ad hominem remarks directed against me alone. I don't see anybody criticizing those people for making them. All I see are big thumbs up signs next to them.

 

[FPDocMatt]

It is foolish to try to excuse it or suggest it isn't here, but it is equally foolish t think it is a problem with a single cause or explanation beyond the reality that human beings are complex social creatures whose vagaries and emotions guide many a decision, for good or ill.

Got it. Point taken.

Like, if I say, "Why are so many doctors in such a big hurry that they don't adequately pay attention to their patients' complaints?", that's a foolish inquiry, because there are as many reasons for hurried physicians as there are hurried physicians?

I don't think it's foolish to ask such a question, but I can see that, in the case of scuba instructors, the answer might be that there are indeed as many reasons for bitterness as there are bitter scuba instructors.

There is one thing foolish about all this, though, and that's that it's probably foolish to ask such a question on a forum full of scuba instructors.