I came across an interesting article in an athletic publication from down south that covered the outcry raised by a student at a college where there was a graduation requirement to be able to paddle a few lengths of the swimming pool. It turns out that this was quite common as a final task to obtain your diploma or degree (some variation of being able to swim and tread water), but appears to be on the decline. Some of the colleges that still uphold the requirement believe that anything which prevents people from dying needlessly is a valuable life skill and will continue to keep the requirement as long as possible.
The tests we’re talking about here aren’t hard to pass. The student that approached the national media with her aquatic plight would receive her diploma if only she would swim 75 yards in the university’s pool, which would be approximately three lengths in our pool and without any time limits, so she can take all day if she wants. The tests at MIT and Notre Dame are a bit tougher; students there must swim 100 yards (four lengths), with no time restriction and expectant grads at Bryn Mawr College have to swim non-stop for 10 minutes, float on their backs for one minute and then tread water for another minute.
One of the swim proponent philosophies in the article felt that by creating more swimmers, three things were achieved: reduced drowning rates, because people who are more confident in water are less prone to drowning; reduced health care cost inflation, because we now have opened the door to a spectrum of aquatic activities; and help to create growth for a health-focused economic segment.
I am not sure what kind of requirements are out there in Canadian Colleges and Universities, if any; I do know we strive to educate the youth in the Creston Valley through a variety of means, whether it is the Grade 3 swim lessons, other initiatives by ourselves or perhaps teachers that take advantage of available grants, our leisure access program and ongoing strategies in methods of bringing water safety awareness to school age children. Hey, we certainly feel it’s important, partly because of our proximity to lakes, streams and rivers, but mostly because it really is a life skill you carry with you forever. While you might not ever need to draw upon your abilities to swim your way out of a situation, what about when you get the chance to assist someone who can’t?
You can see the progress in a small child during a swim lesson set; from getting in the water, to bringing their face close or on the water to ducking underwater to retrieve a toy — all in the space of days. Instilling that confidence in the water, whether infant or adult is a very satisfying feeling.
The new winter leisure guides are hot off the press — make sure you come in grab one to register early as programs fill up fast. For those of you that didn’t have to face that aquatic passing requirement in college, check out our swim basics for adults on page 25 — let us be your source for aquatic community confidence creation.
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.
