www.msnbc.msn.com/.../us_news-life
According to this article, between one-third and one-half of Americans can't swim.
This was so sad! I have a lot of respect for what Cullen Jones is doing to make sure this doesn't happen in the future. It's too bad these kids weren't fortunate enough to benefit from him.
I received a JRFH grant this summer and will pilot a water safety class this coming year with my 2nd graders.
I am basing most of the lessons off the old Red Cross "Whales Tales" classes.
We almost lost a student to drowning the day after school ended. He was attending a large (2-2nd grade classes) party at a classmates house and decided to continue swimming in the pool by himself; he didn't know how to swim. He was found at the bottom of the pool with no pulse.
They were able to rush him to the children's rehab hospital, induce a coma and somehow he managed to come out of it okay.
Anyway the class will teach basic water safety, what to do if you're in trouble in the water, and how to safely help someone if they are in trouble in the water. I am hoping to culminate the class in the spring with a visit and swim at the Carmel Aquatic Center including a joint lesson with the high school life guarding class.
I agree everyone should learn how to be safe in and around the water!
I grew up around a lake and was always around water.We could all swim,but our rule was unless you were in a swimming area you had a life vest on.Maybe my mom was over protective,but I am stunned that non-swimmers will be in rivers without life vests.It is a recipe for disaster.Several people die that way every year here in Oregon.
Our YMCA went out of business a year and a half ago. There is now no public indoor pool in our entire county. That's a huge part of the problem. Pool access is decreasing, not increasing.
I grew up around a lake and was always around water.We could all swim,but our rule was unless you were in a swimming area you had a life vest on.Maybe my mom was over protective,but I am stunned that non-swimmers will be in rivers without life vests.It is a recipe for disaster.Several people die that way every year here in Oregon.
Good swimming lessons include water safety and teach people respect for those situations. Non swimmers have the worst of all worlds, they can't swim and often don't realize how dangerous it is.
That's really horrible. We hear stories here also of people jumping into canals or washes to retrieve pets, only to get pulled under.
When I graduated from college in 1995 there was still a swimming requirement. As part of water safety instructor class, I worked with a few people who couldn't swim. Just getting them in the water and their hair wet was a challenge. But I got one guy swimming.
I lifeguarded at a water park in Allentown, PA in the summer of 1995. The park got busloads of people from both inner city Philly as well as NYC. I don't even know how many people came up to me when I was at the 12' pool and asked, "Do you float after you go down the slides?" Nearly every day I had at least 1 save there, many times 3 or 4.
This is horribly sad. I am so glad that those like Cullen are out there to teach swimming. As my son's swim school says "Swimming is the only sport to learn that can save your life" and it's so true.
Awful story.
I wonder whether social factors contribute to not learning to swim. Where and when I gew up, in the country, everybody learned to swim (without benefit of formal instruction; there was none; with instruction and supervision from an adult, generally a parent); nobody Swam (with formal instruction). You learned enough not to drown, to be able to go over your head reasonably comfortably, to stay afloat on front and back, and a ton of basic water safety tenets and commonsense rules.
Formal programs are good. I hope that the rejuvenation of "wild swimming" will also encourage ppl to develop more general ability in relation to water.
Is it my imagination that most colleges have dropped the swim requirement for graduation? I know it is true at both my and my wife's alma maters and I have heard the same from a number of others.
