Swimming Lessons

[Sundance]

Below is a list of statistics regarding this subject:

Children - of all children aged 1 to 4 who died last year, almost 30% died from drowning. Drowning remains the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children aged 1 to 14 years.

Males - males were 4 times more likely to drown.

African Americans - the fatal unintentional drowning rate for AA of all ages was 1.3 times that of whites. For AA children aged 5 to 14, the drowning rates are more than 3 times higher that for white children of similar age.

It is estimated that for each drowning death, there are 1 to 4 nonfatal submersions serious enough to result in hospitalization. Children who still require cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at the time they arrive at the emergency department have a poor prognosis, with at least half of survivors suffering significant neurologic impairment.

19% of drowning deaths involving children occur in public pools with Certified Lifeguards present.

A swimming pool is 14 times more likely than a motor vehicle to be involved in the death of a child age 4 and under.

Of all preschoolers who drown, 70% are in the care of one or both parents at the time of the drowning, and 75% are missing from sight for 5 minutes of less.

The majority of children who survive (92%) are discovered within 2 minutes following submersion, and most children who die (86%) are found after 10 minutes. Nearly all who require CPR die or are left with sever brain injury.

[quartermainefan]

This is unamerican, but I would make it mandatory that all children be taught to swim by the age of 5. Parents who do not teach their children to swim are doing them a disservice that lasts a lifetime. We mandate that everyone on the road know how to drive, but we don't seem to care who goes in the ocean or the deep end of a pool. There is just no reason not to know how to swim and the byproduct of knowing how to swim is it enables you to potentially save someone else's life. My parents were useless in this dept, and it annoys me to this day I am not a good swimmer.

[marceline]

I remember the accidental drowning of six black teens in Shreveport back in 2010. That was the moment I truly understood the gift I got when my father made sure that my brother and I learned how to swim.

[Sundance]

Quoting American Red Cross, "60% of people that drown did not intend to be in the water."

I have taught swimming for over 30 years.

[AlexElizabeth]

I didn't learn how to swim until I was 15 and I only learned because it was mandatory you pass a swim test here or you couldn't graduate high school. My sister (29 now) just learned a couple of years ago. Funny thing is that our mom used to be a swimming instructor a million years ago.

[SFK]

The elementary school I went to has a pool and swimming was part of our gym curriculum. Students from neighboring schools traveled to our school to learn how to swim. On our first day, we were all in the pool and asked to make our way across. Our two teachers were observing and we were divided into beginners and experienced (they got to swim in the deep end). Throw me into any body of water and I'm immediately doing all of those strokes and floats I learned 25 years ago in that pool.