37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
well.blogs.nytimes.com
37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
1–10 of 56 posts
Re: 37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
#2With regard to swimming, there are huge differences between ethnic groups in the US: about 70 percent of African-American children, 60 percent of Latino children and 40 percent of white children are non-swimmers. [1] [2]
A few years ago, my wife worked on an ethnographic research project about the lack of swimming skills in the African-American population. One thing that was striking was the difference with other multi-cultural countries --e.g. the UK and South Africa-- where there are no such differences in the acquisition of swimming skills between ethnic groups. In the UK, learning to swim is part of the national curriculum, unlike the US [edit: I don't mean this to be an exclusive explanation].
On a personal note, the notion that so many US children don't know how to swim is horrifying. I consider it a basic life skill, as important as knowing how to cross a road. My daughter learnt to swim before she learnt to ride a bike.
[1] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-11172054
[2] http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/swimming-and-the-fe...
Re: 37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
#3With regard to swimming, there are huge differences between ethnic groups in the US: about 70 percent of African-American children, 60 percent of Latino children and 40 percent of white children are non-swimmers . [1] [2] A few years ago, my wife worked on an ethnographic research project about the lack of swimming skills in the African-American population. One thing that was striking was the difference with other mu…
Another possible reason why there may be no differences in the UK is that some councils here offer free access to swimming facilities. A council I used to live under provided free access for everyone, then budget cuts happened and I think it's now limited to under 16's.
Re: 37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
#4With regard to swimming, there are huge differences between ethnic groups in the US: about 70 percent of African-American children, 60 percent of Latino children and 40 percent of white children are non-swimmers . [1] [2] A few years ago, my wife worked on an ethnographic research project about the lack of swimming skills in the African-American population. One thing that was striking was the difference with other mu…
> In the UK, learning to swim is part of the national curriculum, unlike the US.
More details on exactly what kids in the UK are taught:
Swimming and water safety: All schools must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2.
In particular, pupils should be taught to:
- swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres - use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke] - perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curricul...
Key Stage 1 = Years 1 and 2, so aged 5 to 7 years. Key Stage 2 = Years 3 to 6, so ages 7 to 11.
From my own experience 25 years ago that last bit, about safe self-rescue, involved:
* how to enter water safely if you need to (ie. jumping or lowering yourself in, when not to dive etc) * making floats out of clothing (ie. your old pyjama bottoms) * swimming underwater, including through hoops weighed down on the pool floor with bricks (presumably to mimic navigating tight flooded spaces) * treading water (for AGES) * mushroom floating (not sure if there's a technical term for this?) * how to recover somebody from the water
We went once a week to the council pool on the other side of town and pretty much everyone, all 30 of us, had learned all that by the time we finished and left for high school aged 11.
Re: 37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
#532% in Finland, even though most kids are taught to swim at school. 28% of school children can't swim. Note that the definition my source uses is that you need to be able to swim 200 meters to "be able to swim".
Re: 37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
#6With regard to swimming, there are huge differences between ethnic groups in the US: about 70 percent of African-American children, 60 percent of Latino children and 40 percent of white children are non-swimmers . [1] [2] A few years ago, my wife worked on an ethnographic research project about the lack of swimming skills in the African-American population. One thing that was striking was the difference with other mu…
> In the UK, learning to swim is part of the national curriculum, unlike the US. More details on exactly what kids in the UK are taught: Swimming and water safety: All schools must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2. In particular, pupils should be taught to: - swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres - use a range of strokes effectively [for…
>> "We went once a week to the council pool on the other side of town and pretty much everyone, all 30 of us, had learned all that by the time we finished and left for high school aged 11."
I had the same experience. Even the people that had a fear of water/drowning could swim at a basic level without assistance. I think we got a 1 hour lesson per week for around 8 weeks a year for 2 or 3 years.
Re: 37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
#7With regard to swimming, there are huge differences between ethnic groups in the US: about 70 percent of African-American children, 60 percent of Latino children and 40 percent of white children are non-swimmers . [1] [2] A few years ago, my wife worked on an ethnographic research project about the lack of swimming skills in the African-American population. One thing that was striking was the difference with other mu…
> I consider it a basic life skill, as important as knowing how to cross a road.
Why?
As a horrible swimmer myself, I've gotten by just fine. Even went through a merchant mariner college (which is kind of like a watered-down Naval Academy) and earned a seaman license.
Re: 37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
#8Just knowing how to float would already prevent many cases or drowning; never mind being able to move around in the water, being able to not sink into it is in many cases more than enough. As someone who does know how to swim, once you figure out the floating part, movement then becomes pretty easy.
Re: 37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
#9They should have gone to Georgia Tech. At least until sometime around 1990. Before then, every Tech grad was required to take a course in "survival swimming". We had to learn to float for something like 45 minutes, swim the length of the pool underwater, swim with weights attached.
I guess a lot of engineers found themselves shipwrecked or something.
Actually, the concepts were developed by a Techie back in days of yore, as I recall it. Still, it was a fun class.
EDIT- of course there's wiki entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drownproofing
Re: 37 percent of adults cannot swim the length of a 25-yard pool
#10A lot has to do with the location. They claim a lot of statistics from Minnesota but maybe they forget that the water is COLDER THAN A WITCH'S TIT when it's not frozen. It's not exactly the best place to learn to swim.
Also, judging by how my kids handle the water at Santa Cruz, young people are invulnerable to cold water. That explains why fewer young people drown - invulnerability.