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Children know from birth. You can put a baby in a pool, they'll float, hold their breath, and swim. Its an instinct.
We're born with lots of other instincts as well. However, just like swimming, if you don't exercise them, you forget them.
Thats why I support schools having a basic swimming program, so that all kids have the chance to keep that instinct alive, and themselves.
Ok I guess I should have been more sarcastic with my rhetorical question.
I fully aware of the swimming instinct. When we stop wasting money like this I will support a pool in every elementary school.
Something like that happened to me as a teenager too, at a beach in Santa Cruz! It scared me enough to never go in too deep again.
I like knowing there is a bottom that I can push off of to get back to the top...that's what was missing for those poor kids in the OP article who stepped off the bottom into a 20' drop.
Unforunately the trick with that (which is what I used) is to simply lay on your back and float and wait for help. Flaying about, trying to swim in, trying to find the bottom, etc. will only exhaust the swimmer. Floating is a gift our body can easily do - while remaining calm. The trick of floating and remaining calm is something that needs to be taught to children by parents and by schools.
I support swim education in schools - but the common sense portion (knowing your surroundings) and the ability to remain calm is where Darwin unforunately comes in.
And yet we have a federal government that has racked up a $13 trillion dollar deficit (plus another $1.6 trillion for 2010) for the next generation to pay, with interest. And at the same time, destroyed the ability of the economy to produce jobs by overtaxing and over-regulating. While passing laws that give tax breaks to companies sending our jobs overseas.
I hope the next generation, as 1,000 of them apply for each minimum-wage job opening, have more spine and intelligence than the people who support government today.
I'm all for cutting government spending. I just see large amounts of other areas that can be cut, rather than education.
Ok I guess I should have been more sarcastic with my rhetorical question.
I fully aware of the swimming instinct. When we stop wasting money like this I will support a pool in every elementary school.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John1960
Do you know how to swim?
News, Six teenagers drowned after slipping from a wading area into the deep water of a Louisiana river on Tuesday. None of the victims could swim, nor could the adult bystanders who watched helplessly as the children went under. What percentage of Americans can't swim?
I never learned to swim. But i can dog paddle. And I can float. lol
I don't go around jumping in lakes or oceans or even pools for that matter. So it might be a bit impossible for me to drown.
However, once long ago and far away, I used to go with my family to the ocean a few times a month. I would be out in the water, and one day much to my dismay, a big wave carried me way out in the water. I frantically dog paddled and fervently prayed, and finally got back to the shallower water. It seemed to take forever, in fact it was about 20 minutes, but felt like an hour..i was petrified. I was too far out if I would have screamed nobody would have heard me, so i did not waste my breath. Ever since then, I have never went back in the ocean.
I never learned to swim. But i can dog paddle. And I can float. lol
I don't go around jumping in lakes or oceans or even pools for that matter. So it might be a bit impossible for me to drown.
However, once long ago and far away, I used to go with my family to the ocean a few times a month. I would be out in the water, and one day much to my dismay, a big wave carried me way out in the water. I frantically dog paddled and fervently prayed, and finally got back to the shallower water. It seemed to take forever, in fact it was about 20 minutes, but felt like an hour..i was petrified. I was too far out if I would have screamed nobody would have heard me, so i did not waste my breath. Ever since then, I have never went back in the ocean.
Doggy paddle = swimming.
If you're in water thats over your head, and you aren't drowning, you're swimming.
If you're in water thats over your head, and you aren't drowning, you're swimming.
Well it's not "official" swimming, like they show on the Olympics,etc. I bet if I knew how to swim like that, I could have spent less time frantically trying to get back. You can only get so far dog paddling against waves that keep dragging you out further.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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I have never learned how to swim due to the fact that I cannot get water in my ears. Earplugs don't fit securely enough to protect my ears and I cannot afford the massive ear infections from getting water into my ears.
I learned to swim as a kiddo - at the Boys' Club. I was the only girl in the class. When I smell chlorine, I vividly remember taking those lessons. The first time I jumped into the deep end of a pool by myself, my Dad about had an anurism, but I swam like a frog and have been swimming ever since.
If I ever have kids, I will start lessons for them early. It is one of the most enjoyable, and necessary, experiences out there.
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And I can float. lol
I was the only girl in the class. When I smell chlorine, I vividly remember taking those lessons. The first time I jumped into the deep end of a pool by myself, my Dad about had an anurism, but I swam like a frog and have been swimming ever since.
