I was paraphrasing "A majority opinion in favor of instructors being ousted and replaced by mentors".
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.
No one is taking the attitude that professional diving Instructors are never necessary. They are of course necessary because most non-divers don't know a mentor and/or the liability issue may make it a requirement. The OPs question was focused on a world that doesn't exist (in North America anyway); assuming liability was not an issue.
I have met several non-instructors and Instructors (who just haven't kept-up teaching status) that would do an excellent job of mentoring and instructing others. Some of these would do a
much better job than many of the active Instructors today.
This is not a slight to you or I. Because an Instructor
has an ability to teach properly doesn't mean that s/he (when confronted by the time tables of the LDS) accomplishes the job properly.
You don't teach to minimum standards for a reason. I'll suggest that the reason WHY you don't, is that if you did, you would feel that the training was
inadequate. I would agree totally with you; it may well be.
If an Instructor teaches to the minimums, this doesn't automatically translate to safe diver training. I for one don't believe that I can teach a student to dive better within 50 hours of training, than a mentor who may or may not have my knowledge and instructional ability (perhaps more), if that mentor invested twice the time with the student (for example). Assuming a good mentor, there is little doubt in my mind that the end result may be superior to the training I would give the student.
This doesn't mean I'm a crap instructor, it just means that there is likely a person out there who is knowledgeable and experienced enough, who given adequate time, can do a better job than I can do in a finite time period.
The Instructor has an advantage in many instances in-that s/he has an established degree of knowledge, has proven a degree of in-water competence and has convinced someone that they can teach. The mentor's knowledge is a wild card; but because it's not known, it doesn't mean that their skills are automatically seen as less than an Instructor's.
The other point is that over the years, the minimum standards that allow an Instructor to be certified have decreased. We have agreed that the diver standards are insufficient (requiring us not to teach to minimums). Instructor standards are also insufficient. That does not mean that the Instructor is insufficient, but s/he
could be.
This is why I would encourage any diver to speak with a friend who's a diver and whom s/he trusts to help with the selection of a diving educator. I believe that a good portion of new divers today have been trained poorly.
If the standards
continue to decline in the future, it will likely be difficult to find an Instructor who is knowledgeable enough to know how to buddy-breath. Similarly today it's difficult to find an instructor who's capable of swimming 150 feet underwater (unaided by mask and fins), able to breath off SCUBA
without a regulator, do a doff and don (blacked-out under high harassment), or be able to even pass a 1970's Instructor's exam. These and other
minimum skills are no longer necessary and are only distant memories. Some may say who cares, but when looking at the minimum competence of today's diver, I would have to say; I do.