Posted by MHK on April 25, 2001 at 15:38:35:
In Reply to: Tough question -- long answer posted by Wayne on April 25, 2001 at 14:56:27:
Wayne,
I have long said you are probably the most reasonable guy on this list and I have no doubt that you well supervise your children.
I have no children and do not purport to have the requisite understanding of whats involved in raising children, however I do know a lot about scuba, I know alot about what can go wrong and how quickly it can happen..
By enticing 8 year olds into the water with pretty patched discloses the mind set of PADI.. Market share at all costs and while I'm willing to accept that there are some PADI instructors out there that have a clue, but by the same token there are many that have no clue..
PADI has the lowest tolerance rate for perfection. They will positively reinforce the hell out of the worse IDC candidates.. You'd basically have to be a blithering idiot to fail out of a PADI class.. Now couple that with an 8 year old that perhaps isn't as well supervised and/or disciplined as your kids and it's a reciepe for disaster...
Would it hurt to make a kid wait a little longer to learn how to dive???? How about working on swimming skills and as far as I know the jury is still out of what compressed air does to bone development...
THere are simply to many 8 year olds out there that don't appreciate the consequences of their actions, and you can tell an 8 year old 100 times not to hold your breath and ascend and sooner or later you're going to find some that won't listen...
Later