Let’s make this easy!
Once again, Prior Knowledge comes to the rescue. Martin came to see me on Saturday. Martin is a PADI Divemaster heading towards his PADI IDC. As usual, Martin’s head is full of numbers, confusion, equations and formulas. None of which make sense.
So why is this problem so common? When you look at the way that these subjects are first taught to people, it’s not difficult to understand why even the most intelligent of people are confused.
First off. Barriers are put in front of people right from the start:
“Oh you’ll find Physics difficult!” is a common prelude to learning. “PADI DM Physics is SOoo confusing!” None of this helps! Immediately these phrases put a barrier up in front of the learner. Then words are pounded into the brain without proper explanations nor order.
“Weight of an object” “1.03” “Displacement” “Partial Pressure” “0.97” “Gauge Pressure””V2=P1 X V1 divide by P2” etc.. etc…
So the learner has to juggle words in his head, most of them he doesn’t even know what they mean. The result is confusion and frustration.
When people come to our Training Sessions. Most of the time I don’t teach anything! I do my best to get people to “Un-Learn” all of the nonsense that is floating around in their minds. I just leave the relevant bits.
Then I show them the way that I would teach a new PADI Divemaster these subjects.
I start from the beginning, explain in simple terms the methods, the reasoning behind the methods, and in ways that are logical. The result is that new DMs can easily answer questions and retain the simple methods in their heads for years.
Martins reaction was very normal. First off he was amazed at how simple PADI Physics was, this emotion was immediately followed by anger. “Why has it taken so long for someone to explain this to me?” – and THAT is a very good question!