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"Iceland is the only place in the world with universal swim literacy." Sweden also mandates swim lessons for grade school students, though not all schools mana

"Iceland is the only place in the world with universal swim literacy." Sweden also mandates swim lessons for grade school students, though not all schools manage to live up to the requirement.

thebooktocome 3y ago
I’m pretty sure Finland does as well, though whether it’s a national mandate or just standard operating procedure I don’t know.
wildekek 3y ago
Netherlands too. Really grateful I'm super comfortable in water.
- arp242 3y ago
  It's not mandatory since 1985, and apparently the number of schools offering it has declined quite a bit to about a third in 2016[1], and I wouldn't be surprised if it was even lower today but I can't find more recent figures. It's a shame, because it's both useful – potentially life-saving useful – and fun. When I lived in Asia I tried teaching some adults to swim, and even just floating on water is hard for most. [1]: https://www.sportenstrategie.nl/sportonderzoek/van-a-diploma-tot-zwemvaardigheid-zwemmen-in-cijfers/ https://www.sportenstrategie.nl/sportonderzoek/van-a-diploma...
  - _dain_ 3y ago
    Would have thought teaching everyone to swim would be a matter of national disaster preparedness for the Dutch ...
    - Ichthypresbyter 3y ago
      And not just that- 10% of Dutch traffic deaths are by drowning. I did notice when I lived there that people found swimming lessons very important, to the extent that cards to congratulate children on passing their swimming test are commonly sold.
  - OkayPhysicist 3y ago
    It's also a lot easier to teach kids than adults. Besides logistical things like the ease of pulling a kid around versus an adult, by adulthood a lot of people end up being embarrassed around trying new things, especially ones that require them to be largely undressed and in a strange environment. As a teenager I ended up carving our a niche among my fellow lifeguard/ swim teachers for myself teaching adult men to swim. I suspect it was their pride stopping them from taking lessons from the (far more prolific) girls, who often times were teaching their kids to swim.
  - jaapz 3y ago
    It's not mandatory but as far as I know it's pretty much a given that you send your kids to swimming lessons. People that can't pay for swimming lessons for their kids can request government help to pay. Generally when kids are about five years old they'll start with "Zwemdiploma A" ("swimming diploma A"), which you often need to even be allowed to enter the deeper pools. When you don't send your kids to swimming lessons you potentially deprive them of fun days away with their classmates because they need that swimming diploma to be allowed to come.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
world2vec 3y ago
I think most European countries have swim lessons in Physical Education classes. At least Portugal does, I had it every year in middle school.
- DoingIsLearning 3y ago
  You were very fortunate in your experience but there is no mandated swimming and there is no PE mandatory swimming program in Portugal. Swimming lessons for kids are possible of course but they are organized via sports clubs or municipal swimming pools both of which are not free.
  - world2vec 3y ago
    Didn't knew that. It was a municipal swimming pool indeed. But everyone I know in other places also had swimming classes IIRC. Possibly it's harder to provide it in more urban areas (small northern town here)?
- ajmurmann 3y ago
  Same when I went to school in Germany. That said, the public pool I went to feel into disrepair a few years ago and got shut down because the community couldn't fund it. I'd estimate the nearest public pool now to be 30 minutes away which probably means no swim lessons for kids now. It's interesting how that's deteriorated because my school even used to have its own pool till a few years before I attended. So the town went from at least two pools in the 70s to zero now. The area also used to have multiple seasonal, outdoor pools in the 60s and 70s all of which were gone by the 90s. Everyone got richer, but we cannot have these small communal delights anymore.
RugnirViking 3y ago
uk too, at least we all did. Parents tell me they had to swim in clothes for the final lesson as a precation against drowning, but we never had to do that. Fact my parents did it as well shows its been going on quite a while
- jibbit 3y ago
  One of the swimming ‘badges’ was a swim in your pyjamas
- renox 3y ago
  Swimming with clothes on is very hard!
lebski88 3y ago
Yeah same in the UK although it doesn't sound like we take it as seriously. That said I think it's quite rare to find people that can't swim, even if they are very out of practise.
- basisword 3y ago
  The only people I know that came out of UK schools unable to swim were people with a bad phobia of the water. And they weee still given individual tuition while everyone else was in the group so they’ve got some level of skill.
Scoundreller 3y ago
In Canada we’ve been removing them. Probably because some kid drowned at school in 1990-something. Now they drown more outside of school because they don’t learn to swim unless your parents have the planning, logistics interest and budget to enrol in paid lessons (or teach them yourself). Doesn’t help that we have a lot of immigrants from places that also didn’t teach people how to swim. https://www.lifesavingsociety.com/media/239967/2016newsreleasefinal.pdf https://www.lifesavingsociety.com/media/239967/2016newsrelea...
- amanaplanacanal 3y ago
  My town (in the US) has no more public pools, they’ve all been closed down. Liability issues? I don’t know.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    Liability is the big one now, for sure. The closest you get is usually some quasi-private (but basically open to anyone with a dollar) pool. Even the fully-owned city public pools often have an entrance fee (at least based on one near me). In many parts of the country the swimming areas are provided by lakes and rivers. Fun fact: most hotels that have a pool will let you use it for free or a small charge even if you're not staying there; ask at the desk.
    - bombcar 3y ago
      I should add that liability is a solved problem, you just have to get insurance. But people don’t want to bother figuring it out.
      - Scoundreller 3y ago
        Every school/school board in Canada will have liability insurance. But the premiums will vary. Budget tight and need to save a dollar? Remove swimming or limit/cut the number of students covered under it. We were even banned from going to the waterpark when going to amusement parks.

"Iceland is the only place in the world with universal swim literacy." Sweden also mandates swim lessons for grade school students, though not all schools manage to live up to the requirement.

thebooktocome 3y ago

I’m pretty sure Finland does as well, though whether it’s a national mandate or just standard operating procedure I don’t know.

wildekek 3y ago

Netherlands too. Really grateful I'm super comfortable in water.

arp242 3y ago
It's not mandatory since 1985, and apparently the number of schools offering it has declined quite a bit to about a third in 2016[1], and I wouldn't be surprised if it was even lower today but I can't find more recent figures. It's a shame, because it's both useful – potentially life-saving useful – and fun. When I lived in Asia I tried teaching some adults to swim, and even just floating on water is hard for most. [1]: https://www.sportenstrategie.nl/sportonderzoek/van-a-diploma-tot-zwemvaardigheid-zwemmen-in-cijfers/ https://www.sportenstrategie.nl/sportonderzoek/van-a-diploma...
- _dain_ 3y ago
  Would have thought teaching everyone to swim would be a matter of national disaster preparedness for the Dutch ...
  - Ichthypresbyter 3y ago
    And not just that- 10% of Dutch traffic deaths are by drowning. I did notice when I lived there that people found swimming lessons very important, to the extent that cards to congratulate children on passing their swimming test are commonly sold.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  It's also a lot easier to teach kids than adults. Besides logistical things like the ease of pulling a kid around versus an adult, by adulthood a lot of people end up being embarrassed around trying new things, especially ones that require them to be largely undressed and in a strange environment. As a teenager I ended up carving our a niche among my fellow lifeguard/ swim teachers for myself teaching adult men to swim. I suspect it was their pride stopping them from taking lessons from the (far more prolific) girls, who often times were teaching their kids to swim.
- jaapz 3y ago
  It's not mandatory but as far as I know it's pretty much a given that you send your kids to swimming lessons. People that can't pay for swimming lessons for their kids can request government help to pay. Generally when kids are about five years old they'll start with "Zwemdiploma A" ("swimming diploma A"), which you often need to even be allowed to enter the deeper pools. When you don't send your kids to swimming lessons you potentially deprive them of fun days away with their classmates because they need that swimming diploma to be allowed to come.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

world2vec 3y ago

I think most European countries have swim lessons in Physical Education classes. At least Portugal does, I had it every year in middle school.

DoingIsLearning 3y ago
You were very fortunate in your experience but there is no mandated swimming and there is no PE mandatory swimming program in Portugal. Swimming lessons for kids are possible of course but they are organized via sports clubs or municipal swimming pools both of which are not free.
- world2vec 3y ago
  Didn't knew that. It was a municipal swimming pool indeed. But everyone I know in other places also had swimming classes IIRC. Possibly it's harder to provide it in more urban areas (small northern town here)?
ajmurmann 3y ago
Same when I went to school in Germany. That said, the public pool I went to feel into disrepair a few years ago and got shut down because the community couldn't fund it. I'd estimate the nearest public pool now to be 30 minutes away which probably means no swim lessons for kids now. It's interesting how that's deteriorated because my school even used to have its own pool till a few years before I attended. So the town went from at least two pools in the 70s to zero now. The area also used to have multiple seasonal, outdoor pools in the 60s and 70s all of which were gone by the 90s. Everyone got richer, but we cannot have these small communal delights anymore.

RugnirViking 3y ago

uk too, at least we all did. Parents tell me they had to swim in clothes for the final lesson as a precation against drowning, but we never had to do that. Fact my parents did it as well shows its been going on quite a while

jibbit 3y ago
One of the swimming ‘badges’ was a swim in your pyjamas
renox 3y ago
Swimming with clothes on is very hard!

lebski88 3y ago

Yeah same in the UK although it doesn't sound like we take it as seriously. That said I think it's quite rare to find people that can't swim, even if they are very out of practise.

basisword 3y ago
The only people I know that came out of UK schools unable to swim were people with a bad phobia of the water. And they weee still given individual tuition while everyone else was in the group so they’ve got some level of skill.

Scoundreller 3y ago

In Canada we’ve been removing them. Probably because some kid drowned at school in 1990-something. Now they drown more outside of school because they don’t learn to swim unless your parents have the planning, logistics interest and budget to enrol in paid lessons (or teach them yourself). Doesn’t help that we have a lot of immigrants from places that also didn’t teach people how to swim. https://www.lifesavingsociety.com/media/239967/2016newsreleasefinal.pdf https://www.lifesavingsociety.com/media/239967/2016newsrelea...

amanaplanacanal 3y ago
My town (in the US) has no more public pools, they’ve all been closed down. Liability issues? I don’t know.
- bombcar 3y ago
  Liability is the big one now, for sure. The closest you get is usually some quasi-private (but basically open to anyone with a dollar) pool. Even the fully-owned city public pools often have an entrance fee (at least based on one near me). In many parts of the country the swimming areas are provided by lakes and rivers. Fun fact: most hotels that have a pool will let you use it for free or a small charge even if you're not staying there; ask at the desk.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    I should add that liability is a solved problem, you just have to get insurance. But people don’t want to bother figuring it out.
    - Scoundreller 3y ago
      Every school/school board in Canada will have liability insurance. But the premiums will vary. Budget tight and need to save a dollar? Remove swimming or limit/cut the number of students covered under it. We were even banned from going to the waterpark when going to amusement parks.