Minnesota student questions swimming requirement to graduate

[Captain Obvious]

High school seniors in Detroit Lakes, Minn., have to pass a swimming class in order to graduate. One student, who can swim, is fighting it. The school board is likely to change the requirement to integrate swimming with ninth-grade PE.

Interesting matter, because knowing how to swim might save a life in that area. Plenty of chance to accidentally drive in a lake in the area, as the county has more than 800 lakes.

http://www.dl-online.com/content/some-dl-seniors-its-sink-or-swim-time

 

[Armchair_QB]

One would assume they - and more importantly, their parents - knew about the requirement long before their senior year.

Throw them out in the middle of Detroit Lake, if they make it back to shore then they can graduate.

 

[NDJournalist]

High school seniors in Detroit Lakes, Minn., have to pass a swimming class in order to graduate. One student, who can swim, is fighting it. The school board is likely to change the requirement to integrate swimming with ninth-grade PE.

Interesting matter, because knowing how to swim might save a life in that area. Plenty of chance to accidentally drive in a lake in the area, as the county has more than 800 lakes.

http://www.dl-online.com/content/some-dl-seniors-its-sink-or-swim-time

If one can "accidentally" drive into a lake, then one shouldn't be qualified to drive.

 

[SoCalDude]

If they protested algebra, I'd sign up.

 

[Starman]

40 years ago (now) when I was in HS, we were required to take one full year of freshman PE and one additional quarter of aquatics to graduate.

The year of freshman PE included several weeks of swimming.

As I recall they would waive the requirement of an aquatic elective if you could pass a basic test (swim 400 yards, tread water for 30 mins or something like that). I think as part of your grade in the freshman PE class you got an 'aquatic notation' if you passed the test.

 

[Armchair_QB]

High school seniors in Detroit Lakes, Minn., have to pass a swimming class in order to graduate. One student, who can swim, is fighting it. The school board is likely to change the requirement to integrate swimming with ninth-grade PE.

Interesting matter, because knowing how to swim might save a life in that area. Plenty of chance to accidentally drive in a lake in the area, as the county has more than 800 lakes.

http://www.dl-online.com/content/some-dl-seniors-its-sink-or-swim-time

If one can "accidentally" drive into a lake, then one shouldn't be qualified to drive.

Up there most cars wind up in the water because they leave their ice houses on the lake too late in the spring.

 

[Pilot]

Swimming is a very basic life skill that, if at all reasonably possible, children should be required to learn.

It's amazing what a difference simply being familiar with water can make. I have a friend who grew up super, super, super sheltered. His parents had never let him in a body of water larger than a bath tub, no swimming pool, no kiddie pool, no lake, no creek. Nothing.

One time a few years after high school he lied to his parents and came to the nearby lake with us to play on waverunners. He got on one, then had to jump off because it wasn't starting. He was wearing a life jacket and we were in about three feet of water. He slipped on the bottom when he landed and kind of fell into the water face first, and he just laid there, arms spread out, floating face down. After 10 or 12 seconds one of my friends grabbed him by the neck and pulled him up. Having never been in water before, he had absolutely no idea how to handle himself or even stand up, totally freaked out and paralyzed himself. We had no idea he was so bad in water, and neither did he. He damn near drowned while we were all standing there looking at him, in 3 feet of water.

He was so ill-prepared by his parents for life in the real world, even at 20 years old, that it was damn near criminal. You should have seen the first time we took him to a strip club. When he was 26.

It's easy for people to think they'll never need to know how to swim, but people drowned in some jaw-dropping stupid ways, ways they can't ever expect and ways that would be entirely prevented if they were at least familiar with the very basics of swimming. If it's at all possible to teach kids, it should absolutely happen.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

MIT requires its students to pass a swimming test before graduation.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

High school seniors in Detroit Lakes, Minn., have to pass a swimming class in order to graduate. One student, who can swim, is fighting it. The school board is likely to change the requirement to integrate swimming with ninth-grade PE.

Interesting matter, because knowing how to swim might save a life in that area. Plenty of chance to accidentally drive in a lake in the area, as the county has more than 800 lakes.

http://www.dl-online.com/content/some-dl-seniors-its-sink-or-swim-time

If one can "accidentally" drive into a lake, then one shouldn't be qualified to drive.

Yes, because anybody who gets in a car accident is at fault.

 

[NDJournalist]

You can't just unilaterally require a swimming test to graduate. You just can't. If you do that, how do you live with denying those in wheelchairs degree just because they're paralyzed, can't walk, etc?

 

[Starman]

You can't just unilaterally require a swimming test to graduate. You just can't. If you do that, how do you live with denying those in wheelchairs degree just because they're paralyzed, can't walk, etc?

Sure you can. School districts across the country have done it for decades.

Those with physical disabilities making compliance unrealistic have the requirement waived, just as they may have other PE requirements waived.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I had to swim three lengths of a pool in order to graduate college. I think I put it off until junior or senior year. I had no idea why they had the requirement, but they did.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I'm stunned at the number of people where I live who never learned how to swim... In California, by the time you get to kindergarten, there might be one or two kids who can't swim. Here, there are plenty of middle class, college educated people who never bothered.

It blows my mind, but it's not uncommon at all where I live.

 

[Webster]

My freshman year in college, you had to take a swim test about when classes started. I couldn't do it when the rest of the class did because I had cut up my finger pretty badly and never reschduled the test.

I was told when the second semester began that I wouldn't be allowed to attend classes until I passed the test and I had to appeal the fact that I didn't make the dean's list despite having a good enough GPA.

The entire test was swimming no more than 15 or so yards.

 

[Riptide]

Swimming is a very basic life skill that, if at all reasonably possible, children should be required to learn.

It's easy for people to think they'll never need to know how to swim, but people drowned in some jaw-dropping stupid ways, ways they can't ever expect and ways that would be entirely prevented if they were at least familiar with the very basics of swimming. If it's at all possible to teach kids, it should absolutely happen.

I always wonder why we aren't also taught to swim underwater as a basic life skill in a panic situation. You don't even have to master staying afloat. It's a worthy fallback option.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

We did three weeks of swimming every year of grade school. I remember one year, there was one student who was excused from it, and he had only lived in this country for a year or so. The other years, the entire class participated.

At the time, I would have thought they were doing that everywhere, but I realize now that it's a regional thing.

 

[mpcincal]

Hell, I barely remember it, but first semester, freshman year in HS, all the freshman in our PE class were automatically enrolled in swimming for the first quarter. The first two days were the students, a few at a time, showing they could actually swim, which satisfied the requirement. Then you had the option of staying in swimming for the quarter, or switching over to one of the other sports they were doing. It really was no big deal.

I clicked on the story to see if their was a compelling reason, but I couldn't find it. If you planned ahead and got it out of the way early, you'd have all the time in the world to get your college credit classes. This student and the two that joined her protest seem to me like three whiny teenagers looking for some attention.

 

[Captain Obvious]

There's no logical reason to require swimming. It doesn't matter. Somebody with a Harvard-level brain now can't in this scenario get a high school diploma if they can't replicate Ryan Lochte? Please.

Squirrel!!

 

[Jake_Taylor]

I doubt even Cullen Jones-level swimming would keep a smart enough kid out of Harvard.

 

[TrooperBari]

There's no logical reason to require swimming. It doesn't matter. Somebody with a Harvard-level brain now can't in this scenario get a high school diploma if they can't replicate Ryan Lochte? Please.

Should schools not require English since none of their students will likely write as well as Hemingway? Should they not require math since no student will likely turn out as gifted as Richard Feynman?

Heaven forfend schools teach students something other than what can be measured by a standardized test. It's a life skill, and a needed one at that. I'd mention that the country would probably be better off if students also learned some basic finance (and, if you want to be ambitious, basic cooking skills) during high school, but I already have a good idea which direction that discussion would go.