A Bad Teaching Experience

My new students arrived at the dive shop at different times even though they were traveling together as a family. The father, big manic eyes and excessive energy, showed up about 15 minutes early and paced the classroom nervously, mumbling to himself about his "late family". The mother, quiet and kneading her fingers, arrived exactly on time, trailing behind her the most determined looking 10-year-old slip of a girl I had ever seen. Two teenage daughters arrived 5 minutes later, cell phones wedged between their ears and shoulders, and their brother wandered in about 15 minutes late still eating breakfast. I sighed. It was classic daddy-wants-the-family-to-dive syndrome.

One by one, my students dropped out of the course. Mom decided diving wasn't for her within the first 3 minutes of the initial pool class. The daughters couldn't get off their phones long enough to make it to a pool session, and the son decided to just complete several discover scuba dives instead of doing the open water certification course because he didn't want to study. By the end of the second day, only dad and the 10-year-old daughter were left in the course. The father was furious with the rest of the family, but ecstatic that his youngest daughter was continuing.

Although only 10-years-old, the daughter was doing extremely well with the theory portion of the course. Extremely bright, she was quick to pick up concepts and I was truly impressed by her ability to retain information. She didn't miss a single theory question during the course.

In the water, this tiny dynamite was clearly nervous. Yet when asked if she wanted to continue the course, she displayed a determination I have rarely seen in students. She insisted on repeating skills until they were easy for her. When asked why she wanted to dive even though she was scared, she would rattle off a list of reasons: it would be fun when she got it down, she wanted to see turtles, etc. Dad stood there, arms crossed observing in the background. Something was fishy.

On the day of her second open water check out dive, my student was nervous, but completed all the skills correctly until we got to clearing the mask. Even though she had successfully cleared water from her mask upwards of 20 times in the pool, mask clearing was still a frightening skill for her. Before the dive, I told her to simply wave her finger "no" if she didn't want to perform the mask skill, but the courageous child went ahead and attempted the skill in 30 feet of water.

The instant water entered her mask, this logical, in-control child completely changed. She ripped off her mask, spit out her regulator and began to struggle towards the surface. I will never understand how I reacted so quickly, or how I instinctively knew what to do. Within moments, I had one hand on the back of her head, the other pinching her nose closed and holding her regulator in her mouth. Although she struggled, I held her at depth until I saw her stop holding her breath and resume (rapid) breathing. Then I swam her slowly towards the surface.

On the surface, she coughed and sputtered, cried and shook. I was practically in the same state thinking about how this charming little girl almost drowned. Between sobs, she finally admitted to me she was just diving to impress her father. While we floated on the surface recovering our wits, her father began to berate her for "wussing out". He called her weak, girly, and ungrateful for the time and money he had spent getting her into the course. He told her to "get back down there and clear your mask again!"

I stared at him in disbelief. "NO!" I said.

So what went wrong? My student was determined to overcome her fears and prove to her father and herself that she could master scuba diving. While this is a laudable sentiment, if a child is clearly scared of diving, instructors and parents should think twice before allowing their child to dive. As I learned that day, fear in young children indicates the potential for an uncontrolled and inappropriate reaction.

I don't believe this girl truly understood the risks she was exposing herself to when diving. There is a huge difference between book-smart and determined and "ready to dive." Just because a child can master theory work and perform skills in the pool does not mean she is ready for to go on open water dives or attempt certification. These days, the young students I accept are few and far between.

Read more about children and scuba diving.

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Image copyright istockphoto.com, DaveBluck