<p>One of the reasons why I enrolled my youngest in her public elementary school, was that it was next to a swimming pool and they went swimming every week.</p>
<p>It was great, kids not only learned to swim ( all city school- lots of low income kids as well as minority students) without their parents having to make arrangement, ( in our city swim lessons are hard to arrange- it requires standing in line for hours on just the right day), but it relaxed them and helped them focus during the rest of the day. ( cross body exercise will do that)</p>
<p>It’s very unfortunate that so many children don’t learn how to swim. I’ve long been a believer that swimming is a life skill. Not only can it literally be life saving, but it is an exercise one can do for a lifetime. That’s why a thread on here sometime this year complaining about having to swim in PE garnered no sympathy from me. As a parent that struggles with weight and exercise, one of my parental goals has been to help each of my children find a physical activity they could enjoy for a lifetime. For my D that is swimming. S doesn’t enjoy it as much. </p>
<p>Both of our local high schools require a swimmng unit in PE. I always hope those 6 weeks help somehow. </p>
<p>My own mother is terrified of the water and made us take lessons when we were young. My children started lessons at about 3.5 years. I only had to wait in line once for the oldest one. Once she was in, it was easier to sign her brother up a few years later.</p>
<p>the town that I grew up in had swimming lessons for all residents at several locations , free. It was a fun way to spend summer mornings and our parents plunked themselves down on the beach . As kids, we hated them , but after they were done we got to hang out at the beach for a few hours.</p>
<p>Interestingly, only a handful of colleges now require a swimming test. And, while it was indeed a pain in the neck for our student taking and passing the test, it did offer the window for those who did not know how to swim to take lessons, even at college age. It is indeed a life skill and it is unfortunate that so many are slipping thru the cracks with regard to basic swimming skills.</p>
<p>My college required you to pass a swim test to graduate. It also rqd 4 semesters of PE. You took the swim test during orientation week as a freshman; if you didn’t pass, then you were enrolled in swimming for your first semester of PE, and you stayed in swimming for PE for 4 semesters or until you passed the test, whichever came first. As far as I know, none of the schools my kids applied to rqd this, but I agree it is a good idea.</p>
<p>Our kids learned to swim at the YMCA pool. Even when we couldn’t afford to join as members, we paid for the swim lessons, which they loved. I forced all three to stay in lessons each summer until they passed the highest level course, “shark”. It is truly a safety rqt for a lifetime, imo, and it would be nice if more communities funded swimming lessons for all children. It has many, many benefits.</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree more. I learned to swim myself at age 27, despite having spent every summer growing up at our cottage on the shore of Lake Huron. My siblings and I would spend hours in the water, emerging with wrinkled skin on our hands, but none of us really learned to swim. I am a very good swimmer now, and there’s nothing I love more. I feel as if I must have been a mermaid in a previous life. </p>
<p>Both of my sons learned to swim quite early and kept taking lessons until they were proficient. Neither of them really loves it now, but the older one sails and that would not be possible if he couldn’t swim well. </p>
<p>I agree that it should be made easier for all children to learn. We manage to teach all children to drive without parents having to arrange costly and inconvenient lessons.</p>
<p>My parents were afraid of the water- I didn’t learn how to swim until I started river rafting to get over my fear and took lessons as an adult.</p>
<p>My older daughter had lessons as a child, and her college had a pool where she swam, but although they have a PE requirement, they dont’ have a swim requirement.</p>
<p>Younger daughter had to have private lessons as a child ( the public pool was too overwhelming for her she wouldn’t even get out of the car), but has been on swim team for 2 or 3 years to be with her friends. ( a very important skill for a marine biologist) She also just finished a lifeguarding course and wants to work for the city this summer</p>
<p>I think my H can swim, he used to go waterskiing, but he doesn’t swim much, he prefers rollerblading around Green lake.
( I don’t swim much either, the chemicals in the pools actually exacerbate my asthma even though swimming is supposed to be one of the best exercises so my daughter has been dragging me to them- but there are salt water pools, trying to find an affordable one)</p>
<p>Growing up in Europe, I had to learn to swim in 2nd grade.
Our school district here does not have a program like that.
My kids also learned to swim very young. They are both very good swimmers at this point, do not swim competitively but join recreational swim team every summer for a couple of months.</p>
<p>Last August a tragedy happened at a nearby private HS . A foreing exchange student from Korea had drowned one week after arriving in the US. The class went on a weekend trip to a nearby reservoir (I live in the Rockies). The boy was most likely ashamed (at 15 or 16) to tell the group that he can’t swim or is not very good at it. I can very well imagine a teenager behaving like that. Unfortunately.</p>
<p>I grew up in a lake community and every kid in the community took swimming lessons EVERY summer. It was a given. My kids started ‘swimming’ before they could walk because we have always had a pool. Their schools had mandatory swimming lessons for grades 3, 4, and 5. Abundant public swimming pools and a community where the majority of houses have backyard pools make swimming lessons a matter of course for families here. I can’t think of any family we know here whose kids didn’t take lessons through the Red Cross program. My kids took them every summer until they all were certified as lifeguards. </p>
<p>In my opinion, high school is too late, and college is way too late, to address this issue. Is it useless to do it that late? Probably not useless but certainly far from ideal. The other thing to remember is that, ideally, it needs to be a series of instruction, not just 8-10 lessons in one level.</p>
<p>I’ve been doing a lot of swimming lately. I’ve been reading a book and watching a DVD based on the book, called “Total Immersion.” If you are not a great swimmer and want to get better, I highly recommend it. There are also “TI” classes held around the country, though they are a bit pricey. TI teaches you how to become a more efficient swimmer. Swimming is a very technical sport in which you can become a much better swimmer through drills and improved technique. Anyone can do it.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school is predominantly black and they have a requirement for exactly that reason. THe principal is a black woman who grew up in the area and she is adamant that her students will not drown somewhere since she believes that learning to swim is outside the realm of normal for many of her students. My daughter hated swim gym with a passion because the pool area is skanky and the wet-head thing stinks, but she did live to tell.</p>
<p>In other words, 58 percent of black parents and 31 percent of white parents could care less whether their children drown. Bad parents fail to make sure their children learn to swim.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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 :</p>
<p>How to drive a stick
How to type
How to swim.</p>