As hokey as they might seem, I think the "smiley face" charts that are part of the new PADI OW class are an attempt to do exactly that, Rob.
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
... I wish my PADI open water instructor had knowledge of this type of diving, I might have learned appropriately.
... I wish my open circuit technical diving instructors were also rebreather divers, they might have steered me in this direction earlier and I'd not have to be relearning basics.
...
As hokey as they might seem, I think the "smiley face" charts that are part of the new PADI OW class are an attempt to do exactly that, Rob.
Realistically, how many PADI OW instructors are also highly experienced technical diving that are qualified to teach advanced tech certifications? I know a few, but wouldn't recommend them to a new OW student, since it's very rare for an instructor to be able to relate to neophyte divers and very skilled divers at the same level.
The problem is that most instructors are "aware" of "other procedures and equipment" but either reluctant to talk about them because of their own lack of knowledge, to insist that those "other procedures and equipment" are unnecessary for beginners. For example, most instructors, at least in my city, still thinks bp/wings + long hose are for tech divers only, and teaching proper buoyancy and trim in the beginning is too much task loading, unsafe and "sucks the fun out of diving". Most beginner divers will also listen to them because after all, they represents "the way the world learns to dive".
Of course there are others, like myself, who have wished my instructor would have told me about bp/w + long hose right from the beginning and let ME make my own equipment choice rather than make that choice for me. Of course if they do that, they would have missed that opportunity to sell me another set of gear, wouldn't they?
smiley face charts?
Did I miss something?
I'm quite happy to judge for myself if a student has adequate control over a given skill or not...... I don't need a gimmick for it and I'm perfectly capable of communicating to them when I'm happy and when they need to do it again.... I don't need teletubby happy faces to get the message across.... lol
R..