DCBC,
Let's face it. We're seeing the same wornout discussions over and over again on Scubaboard. Sweeping generalizations: armchair dive gurus, PADI is Satan, Instructors are a bunch of junk, I only have 40 dives but I know it all, in the old days eveything was better now it's load of baloney, please buy this piece of equipment because I use it, so it's the very best in the world, etc, etc... I could go on for ages.
Like I said, "Perhaps you're seeing something in these posts that I'm not seeing Leapfrog. I don't think that anyone has said that diver education through mentorship is preferable to Instructor led education in all circumstances."
You don't have to accept the statement; you can ignore it if you like. It wont however change the validity of the statement.
I'm not an armchair dive guru (or any type of guru for that matter). My opinion on PADI was developed over 17 years (as a member of the organization) and the owner of a PADI Training Facility. Since then (another 20 years) I have remained active in diver education and have seen nothing to cause me to change my opinion of the PADI organization. Removing BB is another recent example. Please note, I'm talking about the organization and not its Instructors. They are two separate things.
In the old days, diving training was better. Divers and Instructors were better trained. This is not only my opinion, read the opinion of others. It's a fact; just compare the standards. Don't be ticked-off about it, because the facts will not change, regardless if we both try to ignore them.
As a diving professional, we need to keep an open mind. We should be trying to improve things. Believe me when I say that I wish I could produce a safe diver in half the time, but I can't. If you can, why not teach to the minimums?
This has resulted in a great personal cost to me, as I refused to lower the necessary standards and I was financially eaten alive by other competing LDSs, which caused me to close my shop in-favor of starting a registered trade school for diver education. This was an area where the additional training time benefited me (instead of staying the course and most probably going bankrupt; trying to keep-up with the diver mills). My boat charter company in Vancouver saw the results of their work; diver training was incomplete and I took it on myself to correct it where I could.
On the subject of this particular thread, as you read through it, the growing argument in favor of mentorship is based on the tenet that the level of instruction is too low.
When this comes from people like yourself or Thal, it's a considered opinion that I can either agree or disagree with.
It's also an argument for improving the level of instruction, not for doing away with instructors.
We talk far too much about the "mill" instructors who at the end of the day are young people and aren't going to be working as instructors for more than three years anyway.
I have still yet to see a thread supporting those of us who work almost 7 days a week, work long hours, are underpaid, are criticised for being members of a world recognised instructors' organisation and are used as a punching ball on Scubaboard.
... It is very worrying that senior, experienced, dive instructors are jumping on a bandwagon saying that most instructors are useless.
** No one has said that mentorship of a non-qualified diver is preferable to instruction by a certified Instructor (regardless of Instructor affiliation) in all circumstances.
** No one is suggesting to get rid of diving Instructors (I hope not anyway).
** No one is demeaning full-time SCUBA Instructors.
** You are free to start a thread that says PADI's the greatest; I suspect that I might even have something to say on the thread as well (although you may not like what I might say). Any comments I could make however would not be against any PADI member! As a long-time member and Emeritus PADI Instructor, I consider myself to have an interest in that organization and would consider membership again if things were changed.
It's also even more worrying that when challenged, they hit the ball out of the stadium by saying "actually, its not the instructors' fault, it's the agency."
In fact the word agency is also beginning to irritate me, because I belong to an Association, not an agency.
It's this frequent use of euphemisms to belittle and undignify the profession that riles me.
One acceptable definition of an agency is an organization that serves other businesses. PADI has developed partnerships with dive shops worldwide to promote its agenda. PADI is an agency.
PADI's vision (set down by Cronin and Morton) has changed over the years. It ceased being an association of Instructors when its Instructor members stopped controlling its direction and it became a for-profit organization owned by specific shareholders (like any business). It is for the reason that the Instructor members cannot control the agencies direction, that they are not responsible for what it has turned into.
There are interesting things happening in the world of dive instruction. GUE, UTD, RAID.... I still know little about them, but from what I have read so far, it looks like a step in the right direction. What we need to do now is support formal training, demand a higher level of instructor candidate, explain to the entry level diver how and where to find the best level of instruction and explain to them WHY. For the record, some of those instructors are also members of my Association and they do a great job helping people to conquer their fears and live their dreams.
The evidence supports the importance of professional diving instructors as the way "the world learns to dive". [Last year about 900,000 newly certified divers.]
Yes, there is a movement (as shown within some of the organizations you've mentioned) to get diver training back on-track. I agree that we have to support a higher level of Instructor and diver education. Again no one is saying anything against a PADI member. It is the organization's direction that I take exception to. Resiting the PADI slogan will not change PADI standards.