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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It was such a waste.

For kids who already know how to swim, it was worthless.

For kids who don't know how to swim, one week was way to short to teach them.

For non-swimmers, I would rather they give free vouchers to take the Arlington co swim classes so they actually could learn how to swim.[/quote]

honestly- this is how I feel too.  I know some of the kids who don't know how to swim.  I have seen what the school swim class does.  For one child it meant that he has gone from being afraid to put his face in to being willing to put his face in.  That's great and I'm pleased he can do that.  But if he fell into deep water- he'd drown.  Getting them to the class took out a huge amount of instructional time- getting on a bus, etc.

incidentally- a couple years ago Marymount was offering free swim classes to any child who received free lunch.  I'm not sure if they still are or if anyone took them up on it.  Getting to Marymount for the classes is a challenge when you are FARMS.[/quote]

SIGH.  The point is not to teach a child how to swim in one week.  Everyone knows that's impossible.  But it IS possible to teach a child a few basic life safety techniques and very basic familiarity with the water.--and that's what these programs do, and very well I might add.  Since the program's adoption in the 1970s, no APS child has drowned.   Arlington Parks and Rec ALREADY has drastically reduced swim lessons.  Guess what?  There are not a lot of very low income kids there!  There are many, many reasons why a child doesn't have access to swim lessons--lack of parental involvement, lack of transportation, ingrained societal resistance to water.

You people in your UMC bubble--why don't you get that?  I'm sorry your kid has to suffer for a couple of weeks in the pool.  Yeesh.[/quote]

Bubble? Have you ever stopped to think about how this unit would work for a student with a disability? Spoiler alert - not well. [/quote]

The first PP is an ass. Even for kids without disabilities, they may have fear of the water, body issues with getting into the water, among other things.  Neither fear nor swim techniques are going to be helped, significantly if at all, in a single unit with 20+ kids in the class. So GMAFB. [/quote]

I’m sorry your third grader has body issues-that’s really too bad.  So opt the f out and leave an excellent program that greatly benefits low-income kids alone. [/quote]

This program does not greatly benefit low income kids.  It gets them in the water.  It doesn't teach them how to swim or help them to achieve any level of proficiency.  I have no dog in this fight because my kids swim well and are happy going to any swim related activity, but let's not fool ourselves that this benefits low income kids by somehow making them less likely to drown.  [/quote]

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