<p>My son is 20, and still doesn’t know how to swim. Fortunately, he has to take swimming, and pass a swimming test, in order to graduate from the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>I never had to take a swim test in school…I think in general PE you had to, but I played a sport (golf) so I was exempt.</p>
<p>Thankfully, because of the area I grew up in, so close to the beach and with so many accessible pools, almost everyone knows how to swim.</p>
<p>I remember taking swim classes at the Y and also remember my dad teaching me to swim at the local pool until I could do a basic stroke and float on my back.</p>
<p>I think another important thing for parents to teach their kids (if you live near the beach) is what to do if you get caught in a riptide. I once had to be saved by a lifeguard because I got too far out, got caught in the current and had no idea what to do. Thankfully I could keep myself afloat, I just got scared.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s just because we have all the lakes here in Michigan and all, but I have NEVER heard of a teen or adult actually not knowing how to swim. I assumed it was instinctual. I took swimming lessons as a kid but I had already known how to swim. The things one takes for granted. Yeesh.</p>
<p>HisGraceFillsMe: What DO you do if you get caught in a riptide?</p>
<p>If you’re still able to swim, I was taught (after this incident occurred ;)) that you swim parallel to the shore and let the current carry you in. Don’t fight the current…it’s more likely to just suck you under.</p>
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<p>I, too, got caught in a rip tide and had no idea what was going on other than that I was wading in the surf one moment and being carried out to sea and being accosted by wave after wave in the next. I truly thought I was going to drown until I finally saw the lifeguard standing on the shore motioning for me to swim parallel to the shore. I did, and couldn’t believe it when I shortly found myself safe and back on dry land. I had taken swim lessons as a child, but did not live on the coast and had never been taught how to deal with a rip tide. </p>
<p>That was a very scary ordeal. I got very exhausted in my futile attempt to swim toward the shore. I am very thankful that resort even had a lifeguard as not all of them do in that particular area.</p>
<p>I’ve actually only ever even seen a lifeguard at the community pool. We go to Florida every summer and have been to tons of oceanic beaches and have never seen a lifeguard at any of them. I wish there were more. It’s easy even for people who can swim to get into trouble with currents.</p>
<p>The public HS I went to in landlocked Colorado had a pool (indoor) and required every student to learn to swim but the public HS my kids went to here doesn’t have a pool and has no such program/requirement. I received my Red Cross WSI (Water Safety Instructor) certification while in HS and taught Sophomores (it was a 10-12 HS) to swim. I also taught some general public on a volunteer basis, including little kids and adults. Out of all of the groups the little kids were the easiest to teach, followed by the HS girls, followed by the HS boys, and the adults were more difficult since they were the most set in their ways or had the more difficult time overcoming their fear of the water.</p>
<p>I made certain my kids learned to swim at an early age - in addition to the hours of enjoyment it can provide along with the health benefits, you never know when it can be a lifesaver either for yourself or others.</p>
<p>It’d be nice if they’d use the recent publicity of that tragedy in the OP to start some basic swimming skills courses and try to make them available free for those who can’t afford lessons.</p>
<p>I had to pass a swim test to graduate high school (back when the dinos roamed the earth). That requirement has been lifted, but the high school pools are used each summer for low cost swim lessons, and then public swimming in the afternoons. </p>
<p>I wonder if any of those hotels in New Orleans or other areas without high school or public pools would let the hotel pools be used for safety swimming lessons during the school year. A couple of hours of donated pool time could save lives.</p>
<p>Swarthmore College, from which my oldest graduated and one of my twins will be attending, has a swimming requirement. They ask in the incoming freshman questionnaire whether or not you can swim. If you respond in the affirmative, they sign you up for a testing time during freshman orientation. If you respond in the negative, they sign you up for PE swimming.</p>
<p>Mom2M, That is a terrific idea about hotel swimming pools. Especially because a common way to cut budgets recently has been to either not open public pools in the summer or severely cut back the hours. This story made me wonder if it would be a help if people started packing a length of rope with a flotation device on it when they go to a picnic or any place that people “wade.” Like on a boat, to throw to someone in distress. </p>
<p>I wish more children could learn to swim the way my sister and I did; as toddlers with no memory of it. I never had any fear of the water (which presented it’s own problems) but I could swim to the side of a pool and climb out by age 3; I could also flip on my back and float for 10 minutes. We started out son with swim classes (which we dubbed float lessons!) at age six months. He also has no memory of learning to swim and is as comfortable in the water as on dry land.</p>
<p>I can only imagine how frightening it must be for some as an older child or adult to learn how to swim. </p>
<p>This tragic story is also a good reminder to update ones CPR certification and water first aide. I know I need too.</p>
<p>This is the organization that Cullen Jones supports, [USA</a> Swimming Foundation](<a href=“http://swimfoundation.org/Page.aspx?pid=261&srcid=183]USA”>http://swimfoundation.org/Page.aspx?pid=261&srcid=183) The goal is,
</p>
<p>Back in the day, the Detroit public shools had mandatory swimming. This feed the City’s lifeguards for the summer. Lot’s of Black folks my age know how to swim. Several got swimming and diving scholarships.</p>
<p>Sadly when the budget cuts started, swimming was one of the 1st things to go. </p>
<p>My husband and I were both lifeguards and we both taught swimming while in college. At one point I was teaching adaptive aquatics. Our kid started her lessons at age 2 and Howard University makes swimming mandatory for all students.</p>
<p>Heh even now in middle age, I go to water exercise class. I am surprised at the number of older adults who are taking the class, yet really can’t swim.</p>
<p>DS is a beach lifeguard and when the conditions are right (or, more accurately, wrong) he will have double-digit rescues some days because of the riptide. Years ago I was caught in a rip (and am a strong swimmer). It was not at all what I thought it would be – I just found myself much further out than I thought I’d gone, waves were breaking on me and I was making no progress toward shore. By dumb luck, I swam out of it. Later learned to swim parallel to the shore to get out of the current.</p>
<p>The lifeguards say the rips are easier to patrol as they watch them both from the shore and from a jet ski past the break. The bays here are harder because some have a steep drop off that little ones can walk past and just disappear. And non-swimmers will go over their heads with a boogie board or floatie, fall off it and panic.</p>
<p>That’s why D’s pond does not allow any flotation devices of any kind. Kids with floaties or riding floats tend to venture out further than they otherwise would, and end up in waters over their heads. If you can’t swim in water over your head, you shouldn’t BE in water over your head, no matter how nice your pool float or arm floaties.</p>
<p>I put the arm floaties on the same page as pull-up “training” pants: convenient at the time, but slowing in regards to mastering the desired function.</p>
<p>^^ugh, I teach preschool. Don’t even get me started on the frustrations of “pull ups”.</p>
<p>We were at a beach last weekend. At this beach there are Lifeguards at the public beach access points. I noticed the guard on duty that day was spending more time texting than watching the surf.</p>
<p>We have a friend who recently earned his boat Captain’s license. He plans to do charter trips on his boat. He can’t swim.</p>
<p>“I noticed the guard on duty that day was spending more time texting than watching the surf”</p>
<p>That would be cause for dismissal here. Phones must be off when guards are on duty. At first I worried about my kiddo being entrusted to protect the public, but it’s something he takes very seriously. Now that he’s a few years into the job I look at it as the most maturing thing he’s accomplished as a young adult.</p>
<p>Maybe that’s why I don’t remember learning how to swim. I used the arm floaties, which taught me how to move around in the water without having to worry about sinking, and the first time I ever tried to take them off I could swim. Maybe that’s just lazy parenting. ;)</p>
<p>D had to buy a watch for her lifeguard job this year. She’s not even allowed to look at her phone to see what time it is.</p>
<p>My son had swimming lessons from about age 2 1/2 on but loved the arm floatie things and refused to try to swim without them when we were in the pool. While on a family vacation in Florida I simply let some air out of them every day (beginning on Sunday) and by Thursday he was swimming away, blissfully oblivious to the fact that the floaties were pretty much flat, and hanging uselessly from his upper arms. By Saturday, they were a distant memory.</p>