Why isn't teaching kids to swim a requirement in school PE class? This should be a basic life skill. If the school doesn't have a pool, bus the kids somewhere where there is a pool.
Pools aren't readily accessible, especially in poorer areas.
That said, my kids went to elementary school in a depressed area.
Each year the 4th and 5th graders walked over two miles to the community college for swimming lessons for one hour, have lunch and then walk back, crossing through a very dangerous intersection. As a tax-paying parent I totally resented this for my kids' sake, who were bored by the entire ordeal, tired and sunburn by the time I picked them up. However, for the other 95% of the kids, this was the only opportunity they had to learn to swim. I was happy for them, but angry that my kids lost important instructional time so the other kids could learn to swim.
This is an important issue, sure. But it needs to be solved outside of the broken, dysfunctional public school system.
Why isn't teaching kids to swim a requirement in school PE class? This should be a basic life skill. If the school doesn't have a pool, bus the kids somewhere where there is a pool.
Pools aren't readily accessible, especially in poorer areas.
That said, my kids went to elementary school in a depressed area.
Each year the 4th and 5th graders walked over two miles to the community college for swimming lessons for one hour, have lunch and then walk back, crossing through a very dangerous intersection. As a tax-paying parent I totally resented this for my kids' sake, who were bored by the entire ordeal, tired and sunburn by the time I picked them up. However, for the other 95% of the kids, this was the only opportunity they had to learn to swim. I was happy for them, but angry that my kids lost important instructional time so the other kids could learn to swim.
This is an important issue, sure. But it needs to be solved outside of the broken, dysfunctional public school system.
