Can you swim?

[Lagduf]

Is swimming not a part of the education system in america? You're not supposed to leave school without being able to swim here.

Generally speaking education is not national in America - policy is dictated at the state level and even then can vary wildly within a state. Yes, the Federal Government can do things to have some say, but that's neither here nor there.

So to answer your question: no, in my experience learning to swim is not part of an education in America. Aside from my university I never attended a school that had a pool. My high school had a swim team but they swam at the town's community center pool.

 

[famicommander]

Is swimming not a part of the education system in america? You're not supposed to leave school without being able to swim here.

No, I've never heard of swimming being a requirement. There wasn't even a pool at my high school, our swim team was shared with like 3 other city schools and the kids on it had to be bussed to practice after school every day.

 

[StevenK]

It's very rare for a state school to have a pool here too, my kids don't have a pool at their school, I didn't have a pool at any of my schools. But everyone gets bussed to a community pool until they can swim, them's the rules. It does seem like a pretty good idea.

 

[LoneSage]

I remember the high school swim team had practice at like 6 in the morning before school. Even thinking about that 20 years later gives me the shivers！！

 

[LoneSage]

I friend of mine is 6'6" and he refused to get in the pool at a party we were at because he can't swim. The pool was only 6 feet deep.

I've seen videos of people drowning in water shallower than their height. Stupid way to die but it happens.

Side note, don't try to save a drowning person or there will be two drowned people.

 

[StevenK]

Apparently just 0.5% of Indians can swim. I swear every picture I see of them they're neck deep in a shitty looking river.

 

[wataru330]

I’m sure there is data that supports access to pools and water increases with wealth and that on average white Americans have more wealth than non-whites.

How is this Stefan liked when you know darn well Philly is full of city pools? And written by a person that lives in California where every crayon in the box goes to the beaches and lakes?

Daaaaaaafuuuuuuuuuuuuq?

 

[Stefan]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/22/business/public-pools-extreme-heat/index.html#:~:text=High%2Dschool%20and%20college%20students,lifeguards%2C%20leading%20to%20pool%20closures.

 

[LoneSage]

There is nothing racist in this thread.

 

[Fritz]

I learned how to swim as a kid but haven't done actual swimming laps in like 30 years. My technique is pretty shit currently.

 

[HellioN]

Learned to swim very young.
Earned the merit badge on my way to becoming an Eagle Scout.
Jr/sr high had a pool.
Hard to imagine that people don't know how, then again, I never bothered to learn how to ride a bicycle.
Takes all kinds.

 

[heihachi]

White person who can’t swim. Had recurring ear infections as a kid which made regular swimming a problem and by the time I grew out of it never had the time to learn. I wish I knew how for exercise reasons (and survival I guess), but otherwise haven’t really felt like I was missing out on much.

 

[wataru330]

Many non-white folks in Philadelphia swim in public pools. Some of the ignorance in this thread is astounding, even for this place.

 

[Lagduf]

How is this Stefan liked when you know darn well Philly is full of city pools? And written by a person that lives in California where every crayon in the box goes to the beaches and lakes?

Daaaaaaafuuuuuuuuuuuuq?

People die in the river near me every single year. It’s wild. Water is to cold to swim in until Julyish. People are dumb.

 

[Lagduf]

Sorry what does Philly specifically have to do with this?

I need to go the Ocean soon.

 

[terry.330]

Jesus fuck, it took 11 scrolls to get past all that.

 

[LoneSage]

@wataru330 and @Syn Please read this:

'Black people can’t swim’ is deeper than a throwaway stereotype

"If my daughter ever fell in water and I couldn’t save her, I would never be able to forgive myself."

www.mylondon.news

I used to work at a nearly all black company years ago and found out then that - generally speaking - the vast majority of black people do not swim.

Hanging out by the swimming people does not equate to swimming.

No one is racist in this thread, but a few are ignorant on the subject of black people and swimming.

 

[Ralfakick]

Is swimming not a part of the education system in america? You're not supposed to leave school without being able to swim here.

We had to at my Middle School incidentally near Philadelphia so I know both Stefan and Wataru but I believe they took that requirement away there. I had some swim clubs I could walk to (not listed ) and my parents enrolled me at one program there but I really didn’t learn until Middle School in 6th grade. We also played organized water polo and I really enjoyed that. They made us wear Speedo type shorts at the time and the kids hated it. I think that was a great way to learn and we were graded and everything, so we had requirements we had to pass and different strokes to learn and were graded on things such as treading water and distance swimming. I can say most high schools and colleges (Div 1 2 and 3) in the area have very competitive swim and diving teams, so it is a big deal around here. 4 out of the city six Div 1 schools have swimming.

I also grew up spending the majority of my Summers at the Jersey Shore until I got my first job, so I did some swimming in the Atlantic as well.

As an aside I work in the city of Philadelphia now and I do know my share of black people I work with that do not know how to swim that had come up in casual conversation, but the city does indeed make a very big deal out of their pools and they get news coverage and everything so I know where Wataru and Stefan are coming from. I do have close friends that are black but they are from the Caribbean and the same school system outside Philly so they know how to swim, but most of the people from the city I know do not know how to swim despite having access to pools there. I hate to say it but I knew someone from the city that drowned in a pool on vacation in Newport News VA and his Father drowned trying to save him .

 

[LoneSage]

The best way to save a drowning person, is to knock them out. Because if you don't, they will kill you too.

 

[StevenK]

The best way to save a drowning person, is to knock them out. Because if you don't, they will kill you too.

Baywatch would have been even better with you writing the scripts

 

[wataru330]

@wataru330 and @Syn Please read this:

'Black people can’t swim’ is deeper than a throwaway stereotype

"If my daughter ever fell in water and I couldn’t save her, I would never be able to forgive myself."

www.mylondon.news

I used to work at a nearly all black company years ago and found out then that - generally speaking - the vast majority of black people do not swim.

Hanging out by the swimming people does not equate to swimming.

No one is racist in this thread, but a few are ignorant on the subject of black people and swimming.

One company = generally speaking for a country of millions of people? Not even.

I’ve worked swimmeets, lifeguarded at public pools, and chaperoned summer job program youth on pool trips. I’ve seen hundreds of non-white people swim in person over my lifetime.

Someone page @SPINMASTER•X.

 

[GohanX]

I can swim like a fish, but I can see why a lot of people these days can't. When I was growing up, there were pools and lakes that we went to all the time, in the warm months. However, none of those places are open now. I look at my daughter's experiences, and she's rarely had opportunities to do the same. We had her take lessons at the Y which didn't stick, and otherwise she's mostly only been in pools when we've been in hotels that have had them. Recreational places around here are basically "water parks" where they only have like wading pools for kids and elaborate sprinkler systems.

 

[skate323k137]

I’ve worked swimmeets, lifeguarded at public pools, and chaperoned summer job program youth on pool trips. I’ve seen hundreds of non-white people swim in person over my lifetime.

There are black guys in my old hockey league too, but it doesn't mean they have or have had remotely equal historical access. If you google "lansing schools with pools" you'll get the East Lansing aquatics program, but East Lansing is a separate city (coincidentally where black people couldn't own homes until like 1970). The next ones are Waverly schools west of lansing where I grew up, also majority white at the time although a bit more diverse now. If I lived one mile east in the actual lansing school district the number of school pools I had access to would have gone from 3 to 0. Tl;Dr in my home town, whether you had a pool in your school or not was almost entirely determined by location and demographic.

Back to ice skating, there was a community rink downtown-ish when I was a kid. It was great, $2 to skate and the whole hood came out. When I was 20ish the mayor purposely let it go under, and subsequently the only places to skate were in East Lansing and the Waverly area. Kids in those downtown area neighborhoods for the last 15-20 years have had virtually no access to skating ice.

 

[lithy]

wataru taking the 'anecdote over statistics' approach again. Let's see how it plays out this time.

 

[lithy]

Oh, but at least he got to call everyone a racist. So currently, he's winning the argument I think.

Checkmate racists.