ldmom06

My three siblings and I learned to swim very young as well. We lived in a small town where the only source of summer entertainment could be found at the country club pool and golf course (I'm using the term very loosely since the place was a major dump). My mother took us to the pool every single day of the summer as means to maintain her sanity. We swam until we were waterlogged and she visited with her lady friends poolside. Good times.

But...here in Texas...the major issue we have every summer is swimming in rivers. Why people think this is safe, I'll never know. We have a few nice tubing rivers in Central Texas...but most rivers near the coast are very dangerous. And every year, people with little to no swimming skills voluntarily get in these rivers and risk their lives.

jonri

Oh, the memory of humiliation.

My college had a swimming requirement to graduate. You had to pass the Red Cross advanced beginner test. Now, I have some physical issues which make me a klutz, but as therapy for them, I had to take swimming lessons during my childhood. So, I can swim. I cannot DIVE though. The test requires a dive.

So there I am, in the line with all the other freshman girls during orientation week, waiting to take the test. I am getting knots in my stomach waiting because I can see that you have to dive. My turn comes. I do everything else--not great, but I do it. Then I have to dive into the pool. (They leave that last, just in case you really can't swim because you have to do it in deep water.) I do a belly flop. Again. Again. Well, for some reason, the PE teacher had a kind of mercy on me. I think she realized forcing someone who could swim to take a semester of swimming lessons because she couldn't dive was sort of silly. Anyway, she had me try to dive between the tests for everyone. Of course, this meant that dozens of girls got to witness my belly flops. Finally, after--literally--about 30 attempts, I did one correctly. She yelled PASS and the girls cheered. My stomach was sore for about 3 days. I mean REALLY sore.

I got the little card saying I had passed. I was more careful about preserving that little card that almost anything else I owned. I NEVER wanted to have to take the test again.

Bailey21

Swimming is like everything else -- you need to know your limitations. It seems that more people drown every summer who actually can swim (at least a little). They then do something well beyond their capabilities. Those that can't swim at all usually don't get into those situations. I am a reasonably good swimmer (1 mile+ in calm water w/o much effort). However, I am careful in a river with a strong current or the ocean on a rough day.

The other tragedy to avoid is going into a dangerous situation to rescue a swimmer in trouble. Most of the time both end up in serious trouble. A tough decision for anyone when you have to make up your mind in a few seconds. Very few of us are like Kevin Costner in The Guardian.

historymom

I think that to a degree it's a regional/geographic thing as well as socioeconomic. The first time I was around large numbers of people from out of state, I was astounded by the numbers of them who couldn't swim. Turns out they all grew up in land-locked states. Simba does my theory hold?

When I was a kid, a classmate's mom was driving car pool and told us all that there are three things all people should know :

How to drive a stick
How to type
How to swim.

3bm103

Historymom: I totally agree. Let me add: how to balance a checkbook. Or at least record your checks in one.

PackMom

The college S2 will attend in Aug. (also where I attended) requires a swim test and a swim class if the test is not passed. I had never heard the story when I was a student but the tour guide on S2's visit said that one of the first Chancellors of the college had a step-daughter who drowned at a young age. He was so distraught that he declared no student would ever graduate from that college without knowing how to swim. One hundred years later, they're still taking the swim test.

ebeeeee

My Mom had to learn to swim in college to graduate. She always had a fear of the water for personal reason I won't go in to. She passed that on and I became a terrible adult swimmer.
Both of my children took private lessons as very young children and both are good swimmers. If other parents out there don't have this skill...please make sure your children do. I knew this was something I could not teach my children so I made sure to hire a good professional to do it. I taught them lots of other things, including the importance of learning to swim.

dntw8up

I live on an island that's ninety percent black and most people here can't swim.

DonnaL

I learned how to swim when I was 8, and my ex was an avid recreational swimmer, but my son was seriously phobic about the water when he was young (among other things -- he went almost two years without ever setting foot in the kitchen), and simply refused to learn. It would not have been a good idea to force him. By the time he got over his phobia, in his early teens, he was too embarrassed to let anyone know that he couldn't swim, and didn't want to take lessons.

But now I guess he'll finally have to learn, since he enters the University of Chicago this fall. Hopefully, once he explains during orientation week that he doesn't know how to swim at all, they won't force him to take the swimming test, and will just sign him up for the classes.

historymom

dntw8up...bang there goes my theory

Nova10

University of Chicago, I believe, just dropped the swimming requirement a few years ago or was it Northwestern. One of the local schools did drop the requirement.
The local high school had a learn to swim program which I went to when I was little.

ucsd_ucla_dad

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.

kelsmom

Davidson has a swimming requirement. I think it's a cool idea, but that's because I grew up around pools & lakes ... and I can't imagine not being able to swim.

FLVADAD

I just read the other day that Washington and Lee has a swimming requirement also.

poetsheart

So does Bryn Mawr.