Hoverman,
as a former instructor I will defend them a bit.
pre flight:
I would always go through the whole check A, item by item the first time from the list with the student with me showing them, the next time, I would get them to show me, and the next time send them out on their own and get them to write down any items they werent sure about and I would show them those items again, the idea to make them use to working on their own and developing confidence with good background knowledge.
start up:
I would sit with them time after time doing the startup, after maybe 10-15 hours they would be doing them perfectly, so I would send them on their own as a confidence building measure and would come out initially straight after start and ultimately just before takeoff
w&b:
many times we would check together we were within mauw, but only a few times do a C of G, the idea to get them to think for themselves about when to do it.
the time pressures on instructors are ridiculous, what other profession has so much work to do for so much time for which they are recieving no payment apart from the flight time.
when flying schools pay people properly they would notice the difference I think.
If the instructor has ethics it will be passed on, but ultimately it is the lazy self fly hirers who turn up with max passengers put full fuel in it, dont look at the weather, dont remember the limits, and think check flights are an annoying interruption to their day that should take some responsibilty for themselves.
the 40 something business man who is a bit arrogant makes the worst type of self fly hirer in my opinion, they need you while they are getting their licence, but try to treat you like one of their employees when they have passed, they think that because they can fly themselves from hither to thither that this exempts them from LPC's etc which thankfully is the 1 chance we have to bring these people to reality. !