Would it be nice??

[tstormdiver]

Like I said above,... Yes, it is not at all polite to be late/ unprepared. In fact, Like Rick, If I'm not there 30 min. early, & don't call,... something's seriously wrong. I have seen where students have signed up for a class at last minute; I mean within an hour or 2. If the class is not full, then they will be admitted. How are they supposed to read 2 chapters, answer review questions & watch the video? It can't be done. If they've had time,.. to prepare but haven't & are completely lost, then I would seek to help them at a later time or date & in that private setting try my darnedest to get them to be better prepared for the next class, even if it means giving them a "leg up" on the next session. To be honest the late ones don't hold up the class all that much, even though it can be an additional stress on the instructor to get the late one settled in & caught up. If the tardiness is a regular occurrence, I would privately take the student aside & try to see if a middle ground can be found. It may be they get held up at work, traffic is terrible or any number of things. Yes, it would seem to be common courtesy to call if you'll be late (especially with cell phones today), but unfortunately there are some that are clueless about that. Personally I would work to rectify they situation with the student before asking the student to leave the class. It's an extra stress on me, but I prefer to give everyone a second chance.

 

[Soggy_Diver]

It sounds to me like NudeDiver is describing a situation in which he paid his money, and used his time to prepare for the class and pool work, but his opportunity to fully learn essential material (Rescue) was compromised by others. I think that gives him the right to complain.

His expectations make complete sense to me. As a diver, I want to know that my buddy's Rescue certification means that they took a well organized course, put in their best effort, and learned almost everything. (I believe that my buddy did).

Right on for raising these issues!

 

[NudeDiver]

Well...just as a followup. Out of this class of 6 people:

a). One girl dropped after two sessions.

b). The two people that have been coming late or missing class continued to do so, and will miss the open water session with the four scenarios.

c). The other person who had been doing KRs just before class may or may not show up for the open water session.

So - the night before the open water sessions, only 2 of the original 6 students are confirmed to be coming.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Well...just as a followup. Out of this class of 6 people:

a). One girl dropped after two sessions.

b). The two people that have been coming late or missing class continued to do so, and will miss the open water session with the four scenarios.

c). The other person who had been doing KRs just before class may or may not show up for the open water session.

So - the night before the open water sessions, only 2 of the original 6 students are confirmed to be coming.

Ah, yes. Scuba student attrition. Lucky you! Sounds like a semi-private class for the most important session -- working through the rescue scenarios in open water. Try to get the most out of it.
It's interesting that you haven't even mentioned whether the instructor has been good or bad. Hopefully, he/she is good...and you'll get tons of attention in the upcoming session.

Have fun and learn a lot!

 

[don Francisco]

It's hard to assign blame here, as it's kind of a chicken and egg situation. Do the classes start late because the instructor is adjusting to and accomodating the certain attitude on the part of his students? Or are the students late because they've come to learn that the classes never start on time anyway?

On balance, I'd blame the instructor for not setting a tone, but it isn't necessarily in his control.

It's a cultural issue. Twenty or thirty years ago, if you visited any workplace in the USA you'd find all the staff at their stations before the scheduled start of their shifts. While that's still mostly true in the blue collar world, it's no longer true in other workplaces. Employees straggle in over the first 20 minutes after the start of the shift. All have excuses of some sort and can't understand why an employer or supervisor won't be more accomodating.

Younger workers tend to be the worst. They're shocked when they're ultimately fired for chronic lateness. I had one such employee who I'd fired file a grievance with the state unemployment folks, claiming unjust termination. I won the appeal when he showed up late for the hearing.

Overall, I agree with nudediver. Even though these are recreational classes, there's no excuse for chronic lateness. It's a sign of a sloppy, disrespectful, unprofessional attitude.

 

[NudeDiver]

Overall, I agree with nudediver. Even though these are recreational classes, there's no excuse for chronic lateness. It's a sign of a sloppy, disrespectful, unprofessional attitude.

I look at it this way - the latecomers may as well just tell me, "yeah, I'll get right on rescuing that diver just as soon as I finish my sandwich and pepsi." Not people I would want to dive with.

 

[leapfrog]

Interesting thread with an important issue.

A lot of it boils down to lack of respect on the part of the students for the instructor and the instructor's time.

Of course, respect is not something people give you, you have to take it from them with both hands.

A number of recent threads have discussed "resort diving and training" as opposed to training "at home".

I've worked in resorts and now work independently in a major city 250 miles away from the sea.

In the "resort environment" some people tend to be late or laid back, at least at the beginning. The instructor should be prepared for that and go over useful and or interesting things with the students who do show up on time while waiting for the others. After half an hour, you just move on with the class and the late people will have to try to accomodate themselves as best they can. The other thing is that at resorts I have worked for other people so it's their show, money, rules. As an instructor you have little to say in those circumstances.

Now it's my own show. I can take a different attitude. I understand people's time. They have to understand mine. The sessions are often from 1900 to 2230 so a late start means we all finish late, so no waiting around. There will always be someone who doesn't can't turn up for the sessions and will not be able to complete the course or have to finish it at another time.

 

[jjhill]

People tend to find time for what they are interested in. For me I am always on time and always prepaed for any Scuba class I've ever taken because the subject matter interests me and I want to learn it. Not just because I paid the money to be there.

In my opinion you really have got to wonder how interested in diving are the people who are consistantly late and never read the book. Especially in a Rescue course, I hope I never need to be rescued by someone who despite holding a valid rescue card has never read the book and did the bare minimun to pass the course instead of trying to excell in it.

It seems too many people are sastified with mediocrity. They are sastified with a minimum pasing grade or just doing enough to meet their job requirements with out ever trying to really exceed expectations. Of course there will always be over achievers but the growing tendancy of society seems to be happy with medocrity.

 

[SteveAD]

Yes, of course it would be nice.

Sadly the world is full of inconsiderate people, and nothing you or I can do will change that fact. In any endevour you will get out of it proportional to what you put in, so all we can do is always do our best despite the slackers surrounding us.

I have bounced students who showed up for class completely unprepared.

 

[Sas]

The only scuba course I've ever been on where people showed up on time was my Deep course... however the only two students were me and my buddy and we car pooled

It does annoy me but it is just what happens I find in scuba classes. My First Aid class for Rescue started over one hour late as one student showed up late. He did have an excuse that the train line was closed so he had to take the bus replacment (which is always very slow) but I would have caught a taxi in his position as it takes 15mins from his house and costs $10! I hate holding up people for classes and things like that.

I've also never had a class where everybody has done the knowledge reviews before either, usually there are a couple of people that don't bother. I am kinda used to it now

My instructor had rules of large beer fines for late people and those who had not done their knowledge reviews so at least the students did get punished for being pains!