Peter-
If you're not going to hold people to standards, then what's the point of standards? Other organizations have decent standards, but then everyone passes the classes.
Maybe for Heli-trox it's different, because you can't do certain dives without the card,
but for Fundies, where the card really doesn't matter one bit, why pass someone who didn't meet the standards, even if you think they will with more work--that's what a Provisional is for.
That said, I do think there's a serious problem, but it's with people getting all wound up about the Pass. The card really doesn't mean anything, yet people treat it as though the class isn't going to be as worthwhile if they don't pass. Of course, it's the exact opposite: the class is worth the most to those who need the most improvement (provided your buoyancy and trim are at least halfway sorted out going in to the class).
Since many people seem to have issues realizing that the card doesn't matter*, perhaps they should make the distinction more explicit:
-Have Fundies be a four-dive class.
-Have the checkout dive be a fifth dive.
Most of the time classes would be taught just as they are now, with four consecutive days, but the split might encourage people to defer the checkout and so forth.
elvisisalive-
I see what you're saying with it not being a technical class and with teammates' skill levels mattering, but I disagree a bit with the premise. In some sense, Primer is about skills and Fundies is about team. The class made me a much better team diver, and has made me more pro-active about problem solving even 'just' doing rec. dives. Again, the problem here is the dichotomy between learning and passing. For learning, strongly emphasizing team to a diver who'd hoped to waltz through with a tech pass because their individual buoyancy/trim was great is a good thing. For a pass, perhaps it shouldn't be a requirement. Certainly it's harder to standardize, but I think team skills are no less imiportant than individual skills, and so if possible my vote is for still including it in the pass/fail standards.
It sounds like the issue with Peter's teammate who failed due to the valve drill was less about team not being important than about a problem early on in the course being used to decide whether the student met standards. My instructor seemed to use the checkout dive to primarily determine whether standards were met. I'm sure if someone consistently displayed an unsafe attitude in the earlier dives that would factor in, but for the standards it seems to all come down to the checkout dives. That seems fair to me, since if the student came back a week later to re-attempt, that one dive would be the sole measure of evaluation.
lamont-
My understanding is that the rec pass doesn't exist as a "you didn't quite make a tech pass." It exists to allow people to take Fundies who want to refine their skills in a recreational context. Thus the single tank/no lights allowance. I point this out because viewing a rec pass as a lesser pass is in some sense a disservice to the message that Lynne and others have been working to promote, that Fundies is a useful class even if you have no intent on ever donning doubles.
Ari
* Card does matter of course if you want to go on to take Tech1/Cave1, but in that case you'd want to do more than just barely pass, and the pass should be secondary to the skill acquisition.
