A couple points:
1. The thread is about inner city kids. Major cities have pools. They wouldn't need to bus kids 20 miles.
2. It doesn't take that long to teach someone to swim. Maybe this would be a program that, for example, all 3rd graders do one hour a week for a few weeks. In the overall scheme of someone's school career, that's not a lot of time.
Obviously you've never been involved in anything remotely like this if you think it's simple. It's a huge undertaking. And, if you are talking a big city, it's tens of thousands of students, hundreds of volunteers. And, please remember that most inner cities have a complete lack of pools these days. If the kids can't swim, you have to get one swim instructor per about six kids plus guards on duty.
I think Ys are much better equipped to handle such outreach things as this, with the staff and experience in aquatics. I can't even imagine the mayhem that would occur if you put public schools in charge of this type of program.
One hour a week? What fantasy land is that? It take 20 minutes to get them on the bus, 20 minutes to get them back on the bus after the session, about 20 minutes in the locker room goofing off plus the time to the pool and back and the lesson time. Minimum of 3-4 hours for this undertaking per session. That doesn't even take into account the enormous planning and administration behind something like this.
Leave it to the Ys, or, better yet, the parents.
A couple points:
1. The thread is about inner city kids. Major cities have pools. They wouldn't need to bus kids 20 miles.
2. It doesn't take that long to teach someone to swim. Maybe this would be a program that, for example, all 3rd graders do one hour a week for a few weeks. In the overall scheme of someone's school career, that's not a lot of time.
Obviously you've never been involved in anything remotely like this if you think it's simple. It's a huge undertaking. And, if you are talking a big city, it's tens of thousands of students, hundreds of volunteers. And, please remember that most inner cities have a complete lack of pools these days. If the kids can't swim, you have to get one swim instructor per about six kids plus guards on duty.
I think Ys are much better equipped to handle such outreach things as this, with the staff and experience in aquatics. I can't even imagine the mayhem that would occur if you put public schools in charge of this type of program.
One hour a week? What fantasy land is that? It take 20 minutes to get them on the bus, 20 minutes to get them back on the bus after the session, about 20 minutes in the locker room goofing off plus the time to the pool and back and the lesson time. Minimum of 3-4 hours for this undertaking per session. That doesn't even take into account the enormous planning and administration behind something like this.
Leave it to the Ys, or, better yet, the parents.
