Teaching Swimming in School

During the summer months when America’s children are at play, there comes a growing concern about the numbers of young people who drown in swimming pools, lakes and oceans. According to a report from the Center for Disease Control between 1999 and 2010 as many as 14,000 children under the age of 19 drowned. Almost half these casualties were of children between the ages of 1 to 4. The numbers of drowning deaths drop significantly when children are given swimming lessons. Spending a good portion of my teaching career on the barrier islands of New Jersey, our school district took the initiative to “waterproof” its students by requiring swimming lessons as part of the physical education curriculum for fifth graders. The school worked out an agreement with the local community center and bused the children to the pool several times a week for lessons with a Red Cross certified Water Safety Instructor. For some schools this may be a costly or impractical solution but for many others, it is an opportunity to teach students a useful and perhaps life-saving skill.

For other parents, sending children summer camp with a water safety program is a workable alternative.

More recently the Safe and Healthy Children’s Coalition of Southwest Florida received funds to create a “Kids Don’t Float” program. Funds were used to purchase life jackets which were then placed at several public beaches and lakes. Parents can borrow the vests for free and just return them to the rack when finished using them.

Parents should also be encouraged to participate in parent and baby water safety classes often sponsored by local YMCA branches.

The reality is that all students should learn how to swim, just as all students should learn computer literacy. As schools and their teaching staffs are often called on to go beyond the traditional teaching and learning process (school lunches, health check-ups, etc.), adding swimming and water safety is just a logical extension to provide for our children. And who know we might just be able to find the next Michael Phelps or Dara Torres.

c. 2014 J. Margolis