Mandatory swim instruction for adolescents and adults has been of interest to me for quite some time. Many high schools and a few colleges require students to pass a swim test or take a swimming course in order to graduate. In the past, more colleges and universities has this requirement than at present, but most have dropped it, but a few still do, including several Ivy League schools.
It is always said that such a requirement is good because it helps to insure that more people become safe in the water. I wonder about the effectiveness of this. Do such swim tests/courses really work--do they really do the job they're supposed to do? Do they really get people to swim with ease or be safe in deep water? And what about fearful students, those with no aquatic experience and who are often studious or unathetic? Please go to the following websites and post your comments:
MIT Department of Athletics, Physical Education
Time to Swim or Graduate--Boston Globe
Welcome MIT Department of Athletics, Physical Education (watch video)
YouTube video: Adult Learn to Swim
Parents
Former Member
Of course you are right that being studious or nonathletic has no necessary correlation with being aquaphobic. And students who don't want to meet the swim requirement don't have to enroll there. Presumably they were aware of the requirement when they started there. Attendance at any institution of higher learning is voluntary. Also, students who have to enroll in swimming class do learn a vital skill they otherwise might never learn. No question.
But, for adults, I wonder if learning to swim should always be voluntary.
In high school, where attendance is essentially mandatory, swimming
is often required in PE classes in order to graduate. But these are adolescents, who presumably have not the maturity to judge what is best for them.
Also, in college or elsewhere, how well does someone learn something as hard as swimming is, under duress, and in a limited time? For some, facing that situation is an agonizing dilemma.
Do they grin and bear it, forcing themselves through as best they can, or should they do it only out of a real desire to learn? How well can they learn under those circumstances? But most can learn if required, I suppose.
But, then, it is good thing if a person is made to face his fears, often leading to a positive outcome in other ways.
But most colleges have dropped their swimming requirement, perhaps because so many students were trying to dodge it. Many nonswimming students arriving in college have real anxiety about swimming , as do most nonswimming adults. It is generally recognized that most individuals have learned to swim before they reach adulthood. Do mandatory swim classes
really work? How well do they work? Do they produce people who can swim with ease and cconfidence, or do they produce people who have half-learned the skill, to the satisfaction of their instructors, perhaps, but are not really competent or safe in the water.
I am not sure of the answers to these questions.
Of course you are right that being studious or nonathletic has no necessary correlation with being aquaphobic. And students who don't want to meet the swim requirement don't have to enroll there. Presumably they were aware of the requirement when they started there. Attendance at any institution of higher learning is voluntary. Also, students who have to enroll in swimming class do learn a vital skill they otherwise might never learn. No question.
But, for adults, I wonder if learning to swim should always be voluntary.
In high school, where attendance is essentially mandatory, swimming
is often required in PE classes in order to graduate. But these are adolescents, who presumably have not the maturity to judge what is best for them.
Also, in college or elsewhere, how well does someone learn something as hard as swimming is, under duress, and in a limited time? For some, facing that situation is an agonizing dilemma.
Do they grin and bear it, forcing themselves through as best they can, or should they do it only out of a real desire to learn? How well can they learn under those circumstances? But most can learn if required, I suppose.
But, then, it is good thing if a person is made to face his fears, often leading to a positive outcome in other ways.
But most colleges have dropped their swimming requirement, perhaps because so many students were trying to dodge it. Many nonswimming students arriving in college have real anxiety about swimming , as do most nonswimming adults. It is generally recognized that most individuals have learned to swim before they reach adulthood. Do mandatory swim classes
really work? How well do they work? Do they produce people who can swim with ease and cconfidence, or do they produce people who have half-learned the skill, to the satisfaction of their instructors, perhaps, but are not really competent or safe in the water.
I am not sure of the answers to these questions.
