That’s how my older cousins “taught” me to swim. I’d be willing to bet they didn’t get paid $200 for it, though.
I don’t think it’s a good idea for all kids. It didn’t hurt me - I love the water. But I think it could cause some kids to be even more afraid of the water.
C’n I get a job as her assistant? Do you have to be young?
Plenty of people who approve of
or plenty of people who approve of
??
I think the choice of words makes a difference here.
How do you know that the assistants HURL the children into the water? That’s a pretty strong phrasing that nobody would condone, and much different than it would be if the assistants merely set the children into the water no matter how much they hated or feared it. Hurling implies making them hit the water hard enough to hurt them. And how do we know the teacher is just sitting on her ass? I don’t see why you need to pay someone $200 to do this, but that’s true for lots of stuff.
And yes, if the teacher/assistants truly are “hurling” the children into the water, then of course it’s abusive. But just putting them into the water, even if they’re afraid, with an adult within reach? Don’t see a problem with that. Also very young children don’t have an intrinsic fear of water like older children do and might not even remember it. Frankly, I wish I had been taught to swim when I was this young before I developed any hang-ups about water.
On preview, what Trunk said.
I was speaking of exactly the method the OP was talking about. I didn’t say I approve…I just said many people do.
Lots of different ways to parent but to me this sounds like a good way to traumatize your kid for life about being around water. It’s certainly a method we’d never consider.
When I was little, my parents trussed me up in one of those kapok-filled life jackets before letting me swim in what we called “The Lagoon” at my aunt’s house at the Jersey Shore.
“Is he safe?” asked a relative.
“Of course! He has a life jacket on!” answered ny father.
To emphasize his point, he grabbed a nearby jacket and threw it into the Lagoon…
…Where it sank like a rock.
So, I’ve been through this. Not by anyone’s intention, though.
My wife says that’s how she learned to swim, except without the $200 fee. And I think she was around 8 at the time.
Yes. I believe the same technique should also be used for driving, firearms training and surgury.
Sounds like a good way to induce panic in the poor kids. Kid starts panicking, swallows water, and well, doesn’t swim. *
My mother to this day will not go in above her thighs in water because when she was a kid so many other kids used to try and dunk her (the grab your ankles method).
*Unless, of course, you’re tossing them in for fun. My aunt and uncle had a pool, and when we were kids, we used to BEG my uncle to toss us in the middle. Damn, that was fun.
This is how I learned to swim. I was probably 5 or 6 years old. We were on a boat in the middle of a lake and my father threw me over the side. I swam. I wasn’t scarred by the experience, I even went on to become a lifeguard.
It’s more or less (without the hurling bit about which I have my doubts) how my MIL and BIL tried to teach Eldest, then three years old, to swim, only 1) the water was the North Sea; and 2) they said they just wanted to find out if he would swim if they let go.
It took me nearly three years of consistent, extremely gentle but persistent effort to help him conquer his fear of going into natural water without a life jacket. He had to conquer his fear of natural water, we live in Holland and spend a great deal of time on a boat. I now know more about extinction of phobia by graduated exposure than I care to know.
Needless to say there has been no repeat effort with Youngest.
The peculiar thing is, that very BIL reports being terrified of going into the water – even though he can swim well – which he attribiutes to that method of teaching. Why then, I inquired, did he decide to repeat the experience?
Ready?
Because it is a good thing to be afraid of water, it makes you more careful.
Eh, he doesn’t babysit his nephews much. I fear what he might decide to try with respect to riding your bike in traffic.
Neither swimming lessons nor water survival training for children (which is actually what this sounds like) have been shown to decrease the risks of drowning for this age group, AFAIK. A lot of people pitch it that way anyway, and a lot of parents believe it. I do not. Under about five, it would seem to me to require a good deal of effort and practice to keep the skills current and even then you’d just have to hope that in the event the child did not panic and remembered what to do.
I’m glad this worked out okay because the thought of how long it might have taken to find you if you hadn’t is kinda freakin’ me out.
I just had a horrible thought. Maybe he didn’t mean for me to swim. :eek:
Heh, doubtful sweetie, very doubtful. I get the sense our parents generation just did things very differently, whether your talking about swimming lessons, seat belts, cribs, children’s toys or whatever.
Maybe “hurl” was the wrong word. But they were definately not sat down in the water. How about “toss”? Does that satisfy the word police?
When something is airborn, even for a few seconds, it’s not the same as being gently sat down.
There were assistants in the pool. But they were not supporting the kids. They were close enough to help if the child was in serious danger, but not close enough to be grabbed onto.
I’m sure it’s a great way to teach a child to swim if you want it done fast. I was only tossed once, maybe if the family friend had kept tossing me I would be a wonderful swimmer today. But my mom bitched him out and made him leave. And if there was a law that all kids had to be taught that way, I would definately pay to have a stranger do it, so my son would not associate that with me.
That thing about children having a natural inclination to swim is refering to babies who haven’t learned about fear yet. And in all the documentaries I’ve seen on the subject, they were gently lowered into the water.
For sure. And I think that it’s just irresponsible to not let the children have guns while they’re doing this so they can learn gun safety. You can’t learn gun safety too early! And, what about drug education???
I think that the previously described ‘airborn’ when it is a person doing it to another person most definitely equates to ‘hurling.’
Finally, I’m reminded of Keenan Wynn in the movie “The Mechanic” where he is being obnoxious about the sink or swim thing when Charles Bronson’s father did it to him. I think that his deserts (sp?) were, if not just, satisfying.
hh
ARRGH I’ve been lurking here longer than I can honestly remeber and you people finally get me to give in!
please please please dont throw kiddies into swimming pools! I’ve been swim coaching all age groups for the last 5 years, it just scares them to death, and they never ever want to get into the water again! doing that makes my job real real hard.
F.U.Shakespeare is right about the babies being able to swim. just please dont chuck them in alone! they are completely fine if someone is in there with them, they just pop on up to the surface. 
oh and teach 'em to swim when they are real little and there will never be any problems with the falling in the water thing. All the kids in our family/extended family were in the water by 6 months, we’re all fine! i promise!
Oh good grief, I still complain about this to my parents (and it’s been over 30 years).
My brother and I were both enrolled in one of these classes. I remember it as the most horrific experience of my formative years. I did not learn to swim. I was the “only child in the history of the class” to have to be rescued from the water. Or so they told my parents … frankly, I suspect it happened more often but it probably sounded better to let my parents think it was some freak occurance.
I don’t remember this part, but my mother informs me that I bit my rescuer quite badly after I was back on dry land. Ha.
As a result (of the pool, not the biting), I had a terrible fear of the water for years, and didn’t actually learn to swim until I was about 10 years old. I am happy to report that when I did finally learn to swim, I started enjoying the water and was quite the little water rat after that.
In fairness, I should add that when my brother was thrown in, he took to it like a fish and ended up becoming an expert swimmer at a fairly young age.
I have no idea what it cost, but I can’t imagine in a million years that my parents would have paid $200 for the privilege of watching someone drown their only daughter. They probably paid about $5 or so – it was a class offered at a community rec center pool. So yes, $5 was the price they put on my personal well-being and mental health. :dubious:
While somebody who can’t swim claws in panic up onto their shoulders.