“The most important thing is to ensure every child learns to swim. It?s a life skill and it should be part of what kids get taught in school,? said Lawyers. ?You want to start teaching them early and until they are able to master swimming with complete competence. “

Rather expensive, and as one pointed out,  the logistics are problematic. But to master swimming with complete competence, that would take a lot of money over a long period of time, taking away vital instruction time, Stick to the survival swimming courses, that will help children to survive, at least doing the dog paddle, and how to tread, and teach them safety in the water. Safety can be taught in the health classes,  all grades, concerning life jackets, bike helmets, seat belts, and other safety gear and practices. But even than, it is no guarantee that as adults, the adult will practice safety. Not wearing a life jacket is foolish, but I have been on many boats, where I was the only wearing a life jacket. One time, the boat tipped over and I had to come to rescue of those who were weak swimmers. Not many, while the boys turned the boat over. As far as I know, they do now wear their life jackets.

I read an article a while back, if a school wants to teach civics, than teach law. If the school wants to teach financial literacy, teach economics. If the school wants to teach obesity, and other related items, teach home economics. Global warming, than teach science and so forth. But what is done, it is interwoven across the subjects, and I highly doubt it if it is effective, when it is taught in isolation away from the other connecting facts and knowledge to explain why to create a deeper understanding, than a general surface understanding.

The math curriculum is a good example, filled with lots of language warning about drugs, global warming, but trying to sort out the numbers and information that do not matter, is a feat in order to do the calculations. Math achievement is secondary and the calculations, is secondary to learning the non-math knowledge.

So, I would agree that the schools should not be teaching the extras, until their straighten their act on the core subjects, instead of being in the business taking care of the cries from society.

good post…and let’s not forget

the McGuinty junkfood police and time spent during school hours for charitable events - that most parents usually donate to at their place of employment.

As long as we keep expecting our schools to be all things we continue to erode their purpose.

No wonder respect for schools is not what it used to be.

I think the “it should be taught in school” is one of those politically expedient things people do when they want to be seen as offering a solution without actually having a workable solution.  As the post points out if, as we’re told, there’s not enough time in the schoolday/schoolyear as it is there’s not much sense in adding even more “stuff”.

As to schools offering swimming lessons that’s be hideously costly,in time and cost, either building pools or transporting kids all over the place to existing pools in other schools or public facilities.  In my community the local public pool already offers swimming lessons for parents who want them…

The issue of “what are schools for?” is as old as public education. This is NOT NEW!
So let’s ask and answer,
“What is best taught in schools?”
“What is best taught in the home and community?”
“What is best taught by schools and communities working together?”
These questions were asked 30 years ago in Ontario as a (then) new curriculum was being designed.
The fact that we live in a pluralistic democracy means that defensible answers may be slow in coming.

Let me offer a starting answer to the first question.
“Schools need to do more than they did when I was in grade school in the 1950s.”

this issue isnt’ going away any time soon. Can it be long before an Ontario political party makes a promise to infuse swimming lessons in to the curriculum?

http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3248071

Check out the latest over at the Educhatter blog on this issue.  The issue of lengthening schoolday/schoolyear is discussed.  It’d be interesting to see how our classroom time actually compared to other nations, especially the ones we keep hearing are models of what we should be doing…!