This weekend gone a member of a group of 4 died here on the coast going swimming in the evening. I also heard on the radio that increasingly children are not learning to swim. This is a tragedy, especially so when you consider how easy it is to teach kids to swim.
The latest figures (according to a report by the Royal Life Saving) is that 56% of drownings were children.
One of my earliest memories in my life was learning to swim, which we did at Kindy. Naturally (living in Southport) my family got into Nippers.
Nippers are a great way to get kids into fun safety and sporting events all at the same time.
The above scene is a typical nippers day morning on the beach, with a beach race about to start.
Beaches, family, kids and fun ... surely this is part of Australian culture.
It seems unreal to me that people who would be drawn to the beach would not have the basics of safety such as being able to swim even 50 meters.
Australia has had a vast influx of migrants from locations of the world who do not have a beach culture. It is no surprise that these people are not engaging in things in the same way. Perhaps have come from an urbanized area or a place with no swimming.
But what ever your past has been if you like the beach, and you value your kids ... please teach them to swim.
I think people really should teach their kids how to swim. It's one of the best exercise for your body, not to mention it could one day save their lives. Here in Toronto, almost all community centres offer swimming lessons. Used to be free but now you have to pay a tiny sum, which is well worth it.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing is I had always assumed everyone got taught to swim. I heard about someone who couldn't swim getting into trouble somewhere and remarked, puzzled, "who doesn't know how to swim?"
ReplyDeleteNow I realise it isn't the case. But like all my friends I had swimming lessons from a very young age, pretty much as soon as I was ready. My mum figured we went to the beach, we had friends with pools - it was a requirement.