While awaiting news of the fate of the Titan submersible recently, it occurred to me that the men on board were volunteers. Nobody had to be in that situation. I sure wouldn’t.
Under water is not where I want to be; that’s why I traverse calm indoor pools using a sidestroke—there’s no need to stick my face below the surface.
Plenty of people can’t swim, or don’t want to learn (not that being able to swim would be of much use when the submersible imploded at a depth far beyond what a human body could withstand, likely ending the lives of its five passengers within 1,000th of a second).
I didn’t learn how until I had to; decades ago, most colleges required students to demonstrate some swimming proficiency in order to graduate. This was because, in the early 20th century, swimming was viewed as an essential life skill, particularly in a country with numerous bodies of water. Many colleges believed all graduates should possess basic skills to ensure their safety in water-related situations, especially given the growing popularity of swimming as a recreational activity in those days.
At Cleveland State University, we had to pass a physical education class program that required students to swim the length of an Olympic-size pool and back, run a mile, and conquer several other physical challenges that the university has long since abandoned. Probably with good reason—priorities have shifted so there’s less emphasis on physical education and a greater emphasis on individual choice in course selection.
Additionally, it’s not hard to imagine that the swimming requirement had a discriminatory impact on students with disabilities or those from marginalized communities who may not have had access to swimming facilities or lessons.
Still,Ihad to do it.
And I learned enough in a required class to flail through the swim requirement (running wasn’t nearly as arduous) and managed to earn my degree, although I found my Topography of Continents and Oceans class a lot easier.
According to Gallup, 55 percent of people ages 15 and over say they can’t swim unassisted. Almost six in 10 men (57 percent) say they can swim; one in three women (32 percent) say they can. That means there are plenty of non-swimmers out there. And if parents can’t swim, it’s likely their children can’t either.
In a survey from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, fewer parents who identified as Latino and Black reported comfort with their own swimming skills—less than 25 percent and 28 percent, respectively—compared to white parents at 56 percent. Less than 33 percent of Black parents and less than 40 percent of Latino parents affirmed their children’s swimming competence, compared to nearly 60 percent of white parents.
Reasons why so many can’t swim include fear of water (often caused by a traumatic experience or fear of not being able to breathe), lack of buoyancy, especially in those with a high muscle mass or low percentage of body fat, never learning how to float, poor instruction (I blame my Uncle Mike, who was a competitive swimmer in college at Ohio State University, but was a bossy instructor and ended up scaring 8-year-old me into climbing out of the pool and searching for my mom).
Not being able to swim doesn’t keep people—especially kids—out of pools and lakes and rivers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the No. 1 cause of death in American children between the ages of 1-4 is drowning. Youngsters don’t always stay in the shallow end, and can quickly find themselves in trouble.
Here are some suggestions for parents and caretakers to keep non-swimmers of all ages safe and still allow them to enjoy splashing around with friends and family: Don’t enter the water alone; stay with a group. Adults should never leave kids in a pool—especially a backyard pool—by themselves. Think it couldn’t happen to you? On May 1, Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shaquil Barrett’s 2-year-old daughter Arrayah drowned in the family’s swimming pool.
Keep roughhousing, dunking, wrestling, pushing, or attempts at diving off the list of acceptable activities.
Make little kids wear life vests; they won’t like it, but who’s in charge here?
Avoid deep areas; it’s hard to see where they are, especially in a lake (my dear departed dog Coal, a black Lab who could swim perfectly well, once tumbled off an underwater ledge in Lake DeGray and scared me half to death by not surfacing for what seemed a too-long time; eventually he popped up, and for once didn’t seem nearly as full of himself as he usually was).
A fear of being underwater is nothing to be distressed about.
I once signed up for a beginning diving class in order to accompany a friend on a diving vacation to the Cayman Islands. Upon arriving at the first session, a sense of dread so overcame me that I bailed out and headed home. I went to Cayman anyway and sat on the dive boat with its perfectly companionable pilot; we had some fascinating conversations about life on the island that I would never have learned about if I was uneasily underwater with a tank on my back.
If the idea of deep-diving in a submersible suits you, go for it. But listen to what your brain and body tell you before you go.
Karen Martin is senior editor of Perspective.
kmartin@adgnewsroom.com
