| My HS many years ago (in Colorado) required that all students take swim lessons at the school unless they had a medical excuse. Their belief was that everyone should know how to swim to some extent because you never know when you might need it even in a land-locked place like Colorado (but with pools, lakes, rivers, streams).
I took swim lessons from a kid onwards and ended up earning my lifesaving, water safety instructor, survival and advanced survival swimming, and taught swim to high schoolers while in HS. I also taught swim to adults and kids (at no cost to them).
And speaking of black kids who don't swim, I can still remember teaching a young black girl to swim who despite her inability to swim at the beginning, paid attention, was eager to learn, and progressed rapidly - more than the rest of the kids. I had a lot of respect for that girl. I also remember teaching an adult to dive who was deathly afraid to dive. He was a middle-aged man who just had a fear of it. I worked with him though and was able to get him to dive. Once he did it he was beaming like a kid at his accomplishment. He then proceeded to dive over and over on his own (like a kid). It was fun to see even as a HS kid at the time.
Maybe when I retire I'll find a way to teach swim again but I'll only do it if it's free to the students. |