Instructor dating DM, would I tell students?

[DivemasterDennis]

I think this is a non-issue. In the context of a class in a formal setting, it may never come up. Other classes seems to "bond" and are more social. It may be part of the conversation in that class. It certainly is no issue to stress over either way, or by either party.
DivemasterDennis

 

[TSandM]

Somebody mentioned that it might be important to disclose so that students don't misinterpret behavior during class (playing "grab-ass"). My reaction to that is that such behavior is not professional. Anything you do during the class should be something you would do no matter WHO the DM was.

 

[Phil_C]

Somebody mentioned that it might be important to disclose so that students don't misinterpret behavior during class (playing "grab-ass"). My reaction to that is that such behavior is not professional. Anything you do during the class should be something you would do no matter WHO the DM was.

Agree totally - the relationship must remain professional. Different people react differently and what you might see as fun behaviour and OK, others might see as intimidating or inappropriate.

Like any workplace environment relationships must remain acceptable to the "lowest common denominator". I'm sure everyone would agree it would be wrong if a student didn't feel they could approach the instructor because they were too wrapped up in their own relationships, the trouble is you don't know what behaviour from you might make an individual student feel like that unless you know them really well, which isn't likely to happen all that often in a scuba teaching environment.

But then this would apply to a lot more than relationships between staff - language and practical jokes can be just as intimidating to some. - P

 

[C P]

While a lot of my teaching is team teaching, my wife DMs some. Mostly she gets drawn into it by the students. She is good like that. If I have significant others of other divers they often want her to be involved as they appreciate her skills and experience as an example to their wives. Our oldest daughter is also a DM ( she is working on her instructor rating and in grad school in a diving related field) and has helped some. While with my wife it is obvious we are related, and never been an issue I didn't let on about our daughter most of the time and that caused at least on boy/student some stress when he asked me if I would help him hook up with her.

 

[fjpatrum]

Completely irrelevant to the course material so why would it matter? I don't see why it would be weird or inappropriate, but to me there's no reason to discuss it at all. TS&M is commonly the DM for her husband's classes and they seem to be doing just fine with it. I'm sure there are plenty of couple teams in diving instruction.

 

[Crypsis]

She thinks its weird because she wants to have it out in the open to stake her claim. That way no female student gets the wrong idea about flirting with you. I doubt it's a matter of professionalism or business etiquette in truth.