Should it be required by law that children be taught how to swim in school?

It should be required by basic common sense

Exactly.

I live in England at the moment and I am shocked by how many people cannot swim. It's an Island!

I just don't understand how kids can be raised now a days without swimming being part of their lives?

I don't remember ever not being able to swim, then again my parents didn't work 60 hours a week so they could afford a lot of uselss crap. They had time to take us out to places where we could go swimming.

Frankly, if you raise children, and they get to adulthood without being able to swim you've failed at an important part of parenting.

reply to post by Merigold


Why exactly should people learn to swim? we are land animals after all, if your not doing it as a sport or to keep fit what is the point exactly?

ATS ....... now transforming into a parenting advice website.

This is bizarre.

If you want your kids to swim teach them or get them lessons.

Just to throw a spanner or two in the works for those who think this is some sort of solution for getting kids healthy and keeping them safe in water........

When good swimmers mature and make friends with alcohol the combination is seriously dangerous. Drunk people think they are the best swimmers.

Even when drink is not involved some swimmers can have a false sense of security when it comes to water. Many excellent swimmers have met their end in open water even when they are good swimmers. I know of these situations personally.

I also have a nephew whose class was taken swimming. The pool was full of kids and full of lifeguards. That didn't help when one of the kids was noticed missing and found at the bottom of the pool. The child didn't make it. Aged 6.

Sorry for been realisitc but you must always be careful around water. We are not fish.



[edit on 16-7-2010 by JohnySeagull]

It's always staggered me to hear people say words to the effect of 'I can't swim' which may hit nerve with some posters here but that's always been my feeling on the matter. I'm talking about people in normal physical shape with all limbs in functioning condition of course. I'm also not talking about setting record times in competition events, but simply the ability to keep your head above water and move in a desired direction however slowly in order to reach dry land and safety.

From my encounters with people who 'can't swim' it's a mental thing only as in they've convinced themselves of having this 'handicap' which boils down to a phobia about being in deep water and the right conditioning can relieve their symptoms, I've seen this approach succeed many times.

Everyone with functioning limbs can swim but some need more convincing than others and those are the ones who need a little coaching in order to conquer their phobia. Swim training was always a part of schooling to some degree here in Oz and not for the purpose of creating future stars, but more to ensure their safety in the water. Having enough confidence to 'dog-paddle' without panicking is sufficient.

Should add that all my kids had the instinct to 'swim' from the earliest age (with intensely close and vigilant supervision of course). The phobia, if it develops, comes about later in life.


[edit on 16/7/2010 by Pilgrum]

No. I am of the opinion that more responsibility should be placed upon parents. We need to take our children back from the state run institutions and start teaching them ourselves. If I hear another "it should be required by law...school...blah...blah...blah" I may flip out.

reply to post by Solomons


We are land animals surround by water.

Boy A can swim.
Boy B can't swim.

Boy A&B are swept away in a flash flood.

Boy A survives long enough to be rescued because he can swim.

Boy B drowns becasue he cannot swim.

A parent should give their off spring every advantage.

Also, it's fun!

all it takes is a parent that wants to actually spend time with their child to teach them to swim

just take them to a pool once or twice and they will start swimming... kids that dont know how to swim are probably the kids whos parents make the tv the babysitter

when i was little i lived by no shore line... but my mom or dad always took me and my bro and sis to the local pool.... all it takes is parents not to be lazy!!!

this is just another case of parents trying to pass their responsibility onto the state

[edit on 16-7-2010 by Kr0nZ]

Originally posted by Nventual

I think the reason every school teaches it here is due to tradition. They probably started teaching it not long after we 'took over' the country due to everyone living so close to the beach. I could be way off though.

In Oz I always thought it was more because of the warmer climate that made getting into the water to cool down on a hot summer day more likely than, say, northern parts of Europe. But regardless of climate variations, swimming is probably the simplest and most basic of survival skills. You don't need to be a champion or swim often, just knowing how to respond to being in deep water is sufficient even if the situation never occurs.

reply to post by Xammu


Would you trust a complete stranger to teach your child how to swim? Most teachers are underpaid, barely qualified and could not give a damn if your kid drowns. I met a public school gym teacher who was like 300lbs overweight. Does that even make sense?

Well, first off let me say that I do not believe we need any sort of law requiring me to learn a skill or not.

I also think that the issue of swimming is already handled by local school districts, and more importantly if that school district has a pool.

Way back when I was a student my area had a pools in both the middle school and the high school so every student at the latest learned basic lifesaving skills starting in 6th grade in p.e. class.

By the time we were high school there were no students that couldn't swim freestyle, breast and back stroke.

Originally posted by xkiax
reply to post by Xammu

 

Would you trust a complete stranger to teach your child how to swim? Most teachers are underpaid, barely qualified and could not give a damn if your kid drowns. I met a public school gym teacher who was like 300lbs overweight. Does that even make sense?

I understand what your saying.

We actually had a number of students on the town swim team (it was very popular in my area) , then there were some who had some very basic skills ie could doggie paddle or float on one side or the other.

The teacher couldn't teach all the 6th graders that didn't know how to swim. So she would explain what would be the task, say proper kicking form, and the swim team members would be in the water with one newbie each so there was someone with the nonswimmer to make sure they were doing it right and for safety.

There was a group effort in the teaching.


Not related to above

I would like to point out that even excellent swimmers drown, particularly when swimming in natural bodies of water. I knew a boy that drowned in Lake Michigan, got caught in the undertow and it took him, he was an excellent swimmer but knowing how to swim doesn't prepare you for that situation.

I live in California.

We had to pass a swimming test to graduate from High School. That was in the late 60's. I took the test in the 10th grade. If you didn't pass the test you had to take swimming as part of PE.

I can't remember my kids having to take the swim test when they were in high school in the late 1990's

Originally posted by Merigold
reply to post by Solomons

 

We are land animals surround by water.

Boy A can swim.
Boy B can't swim.

Boy A&B are swept away in a flash flood.

Boy A survives long enough to be rescued because he can swim.

Boy B drowns becasue he cannot swim.

A parent should give their off spring every advantage.

Also, it's fun!

chances are if its a flsh flood or big wave or whatever disaster wether or not you can swim has nothing to do with anything. I'm sorry to say Boy A and Boy B will both drown.

Life is not like a goddam hollywood movie. God sake.

Hey! Leave me and my family out of your "required" viewpoints! I got my own way of thinking and raising my children.

Are we ever going to stop trying to tell people what they should and shouldn't do? Doesn't the Government do that enough? Why are we doing it to ourselves?

reply to post by Pilgrum


I totally agree. I can't swim, only because of my fear of drowning, but not the water. As long as I had something to float with, you couldn't get me out of the water. I can float with almost nothing, but if you take it away, I turn into a rock. I miss out on a lot by not actually knowing how to swim.

From the time I was little, I heard if you go in the water, you'll drown. The woman I was named after, her little boy drowned at 5.

I've been thrown into the water by well meaning people, only to be rescued right away. Total panic. I even punched someone out of fear when he was trying to teach me. Didn't even remember doing it.

I made sure my son knew how to swim by the time he was 2. His father and grandmother taught him, with me going elsewhere so he wouldn't pick up on my fear. I am soooo glad I made sure he learned.

We had our son in the pool when he was was two months old, of course I was holding him, but by the next summer he was swimming on his own with one of those floatie suits. He always has to wear a life jacket when we are swimming in the lake, but now at 9 he can do front and back flips off the diving board (not pretty ones but still :LOL)

It is too hot here in the summer to do much outside if it doesn't involve water, so swimming is just a part of life. I do think that all children, or people rather need to have at least basic skills to keep themselves afloat.

I do not feel it should be mandated, but rather encouraged and offered as an affordabe afterschool activity or elective.

When it comes to drowning and chances of survival I learn the hard way back in my Island that it doesn't matter how good of a swimmer you are if you are to die from drowning is going to happen anyway.

As is many drowning incidents going around when you live in an Island.

"REQUIRED BY LAW", ummmm no thanks. If you like living in a totalitarianism state then start a new country.

I don't think it should be taught in schools.

I'm OK with people paying for lessons out of pocket, but I'm not on board with wasting taxpayer money on it.

I think most countries have problems that take precedence over swimming lessons.

reply to post by Merigold


while we might be land animals we spend up to 9 months "swimming and diving" in the waters of life before we emerge as land animals.