I was talking to a young 20's dancer recently and she told me that she couldn't swim. I would have thought that in this day and age everybody knew how. Am I wrong?
They don't always teach it in school anymore. It was required in 9th grade for me (1992-1993). But with funding and tax cuts, it's harder to justify. Mom took me to lessons and several neighbors had pools along with the city recreation center.
I was fortunate enough to have a pool in the local park district, where I learned to swim - then another in HS with a couple of swim units in my required gym credits and another in college. My wife, on the other hand, grew up on an island and never learned how to swim.
You can't graduate at University Of Chicago without passing the Life Saving test. If it's too expensive for high schools I understand, especially with Republican budget cuts to education. I believe ALL college should make swimming mandatory for graduation unless you're physically disabled.
My last two DS would not get in the pool at hotels when we traveled, both said they could not swim. I think kids that are raised with easy access to recreation (pools, sports teams....) usually dont end up stripping
My dental hygienist this week is a cute young thing and chatty. We were talking about this and she also can't swim. I've been swimming laps just about my entire life. My wife complains that I always smell like chlorine.
I learned to swim in Indiana lakes when I was about 5 and since then have swum many times every year all over the world. Also, my first high school was right next to a YMCA, my second high school had its own pool, and both had mandatory swimming instruction in gym class. However, there have always been a surprising number of people who can't swim.
Down here in FL, most people know how to swim. Most, but not all. I find it incomprehensible that people can't swim around here, but every few months I run into someone who can't. My obvervations align with with Daddillac's comment, its more common among strippers to not be able to swim. And at the risk of sounding racist, the black girls are even more common. I can think of three strippers off the top of my head that can't swim, all three are black and from islands. One Jamaican, one Bahamian, and on from Trinidad.
Surprisingly, it's not that common that many people doesn't know how to swim. I didn't even learn how to swim until I was shipped off to boot camp after I joined the military.
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I can swin, quite well, in fact. Late GenX here.