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
Orca1946: You must be referring to the last sentence of my posting. Except for the comment by Melon Dash, all the statements I gave were near-verbatim quotes from an AP story appearing in my local newspaper, dated May 5, 2006, by the AP Education Writer Justin Pope: "Most colleges drown swim test requirement for graduation".
The article reported that some opposed dropping the requirement. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where the swimming requirement was dropped recently, long-time swim instructor Meg Pomerantz, who teaches swim classes for students who need them to pass the test, lobbied unsuccessfully against dropping the requirement.
She was quoted as saying that, in her 16 years at UNC she never had a student who said anything other than "I'm really glad I learned how to do this".
The article began by saying that, of those students who were waiting to take the final swim test to be required at UNC, for some, it ws a minor inconvenience, while for others it was a moment of pride in conquering their fear of water.
At the university, said Meg Pomerantz, the faculty "looked at all the different things they wanted students to achieve--diversity, expierential education, being able to apply
what you learn." Focusing on the the single skill of swimming just didn't fit, though she feels that it's still worthwhile.
I feel that the larger social/educational issues I mentioned in my last post were probably the deciding factor. Only about eight schools still have the requirement, plus the service academies. The holdouts include Columbia, Cornell, MIT, and Notre Dame.
We muist also consider Melon Dash's views on the matter
Orca1946: You must be referring to the last sentence of my posting. Except for the comment by Melon Dash, all the statements I gave were near-verbatim quotes from an AP story appearing in my local newspaper, dated May 5, 2006, by the AP Education Writer Justin Pope: "Most colleges drown swim test requirement for graduation".
The article reported that some opposed dropping the requirement. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where the swimming requirement was dropped recently, long-time swim instructor Meg Pomerantz, who teaches swim classes for students who need them to pass the test, lobbied unsuccessfully against dropping the requirement.
She was quoted as saying that, in her 16 years at UNC she never had a student who said anything other than "I'm really glad I learned how to do this".
The article began by saying that, of those students who were waiting to take the final swim test to be required at UNC, for some, it ws a minor inconvenience, while for others it was a moment of pride in conquering their fear of water.
At the university, said Meg Pomerantz, the faculty "looked at all the different things they wanted students to achieve--diversity, expierential education, being able to apply
what you learn." Focusing on the the single skill of swimming just didn't fit, though she feels that it's still worthwhile.
I feel that the larger social/educational issues I mentioned in my last post were probably the deciding factor. Only about eight schools still have the requirement, plus the service academies. The holdouts include Columbia, Cornell, MIT, and Notre Dame.
We muist also consider Melon Dash's views on the matter
