the Price of Swim Lessons

I enrolled my son in a class with an instructor for a limited group series of swimming lessons. There were to be a series of 2 lessons per week for four weeks.

The quality of service was not what was discussed or what I had expected. The instructor was Red Cross certified and appeared knowledgeable, but was not organized and offered very little individual correction or attention. The instructions were held at her home in a large, clean pool. This was a very good feature of the program. The instructor did a poor job of maintaining discipline and several parents, usually the same ones each time, would interrupt the lessons with questions or suggestions. It destroyed the focus of the lessons. The instructor should have had better control of the parents and therefore been better able to concentrate on the swimming lessons.

Prior to signing up a child for lessons, I feel a parent should get a list of references and contact other parents who have used the same instructor. Ask questions as to the experience, what they liked, disliked and did they feel that the child learned to swim? Swimming is more than just splashing in a pool. Did they have confidence that their child learned to swim, more than the basic arm and leg movements and knew what to do if they fell into a pool?

I should have asked more questions and asked for references prior to agreeing to the lessons.