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Feature Article: Instructional Frustration
I must admit, I am somewhat discourged with primary flight instruction.
Students that don't prepare for the lesson, don't do their homework,
fail to show up, whine about the cost, fail to take responsibility,
etc. There are some who just want you to open their skull and
pour in years of knowledge and experience without themselves
lifting a finger. It didn't take me long to experience long waits
for a scheduled student and then to be stood up. It's one thing
at 2:00 pm on a Tuesday, but quite another at 6:00 am on Sunday
morning.
Some of these problems could be caused by the modern training
environment:
flight schools which promise that it's easy "just stick
the CD-ROM in the computer and "boom" the ground school
is over and promises the same that they will be a pilot in 40
hours. When I tell students that they can expect to spend 65-75
hours in the plane and 200 to 300 hundred hours studying - they
look at me like I'm from outerspace.
Gene's response:
I too have experienced all of the frustrations you have mentioned.
I have experieced it in thirty years of teaching flying and in
another thirty years of teaching public school. I pride myself
in successful teaching where others have failed. I was a teacher
of retarded children who found that previous instructional damage
was the major cause of difficulty. The same has been true of
my teaching of flying. The inability to apply themselves to the
required study by flying students is a reflection of their previous
school experience.
As flight instructors we must rebuild attitudes and habits. We
must motivate because we have, in flying, one of the greatest
achievements of mankind. One of the things we, as instructors,
must instill in our students is an acceptance of a life that
is filled with delay and frustration. Flying is that way, be
it weather, maintenance, scheduling or otherwise. Learning to
fly is a maturation of the student to accept that which cannot
be changed and to change the changeable.
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