Doesn't help for young kids of course, but I went to a university that required you to pass a swimming test (or have equivalent credentials, PE swimming class, or exemption to graduate). Don't know how strictly enforced it was if push came to shove but it was there

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skeeter2020 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Of all the things a university graduate should possess this seems pretty far down the list, when the most common causes of death in this demo could be addressed: car accidents, suicide, homicide, drug overdoses and alcohol-related causes

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PopAlongKid 4 days ago | parent [-]

I don't think the point was death prevention, just as most other things taught at university were not primarily about death prevention.

	▲	ghaff 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I'm also not sure what a class about not killing people including yourself looks like. Universities do often have psychiatric programs. But swimming seems a fairly basic PE program as do other ones. Certainly swimming seems more fundamental than fencing or lots of other sports though those are of course often offered too.

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PopAlongKid 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

My university had the same policy. Despite having swim lessons as a child, I did not learn how to swim until university. I was finally able to swim the length of the pool using the side stroke, which along with the backstroke is the only thing I can barely manage. My problem with the crawl/freestyle (or whatever it's called) is breathing -- even when I was in good enough shape to run 5-minute miles on land, I would be totally out of breath before I even got to the end of the pool.

	▲	ghaff 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I used to swim a lot more but was never great at it--although I once did the 1 mile swim thing in boy scouts. These days I tend to prefer side stroke when I swim.