Gym teachers make the rules. Which explains a lot.
Urban legend?
I have to wonder what % of schools had swimming pools then and now.
FReegards
This is why you home school.
It turns out that this rather bizarre tradition of boys doing the breast stroke in their birthday suits can be traced all the way back to 1885, when it began at an all-male indoor pool in Brooklyn’s YMCA.
This was even before the hippies entirely took over the state.
Some legislator introduced a bill in Montpelier to outlaw skinny dipping.
Mostly conservative Republican Senator Aiken returned from Washington just to testify regarding this bill.
He stood before the legislature and asked any who had never skinny dipped to please raise their hand.
No hands were raised.
The bill failed.
Except for on public beaches, it is still legal to skinny dip in Vermont.
I learned to swim summer after 1st grade in a public school indoor gym, in the 1950s. There were two classes operating at the pool at the same time, separated by a rope across the pool. All the “little boys”, like me at one end of the pool, and older boys, 6th, 7th and 8th graders at the other end. All of us were naked, no swin suits allowed. Funny, at the time I thought nothing of it and none of it bothered me.
Then they went to the speedo suit.... it was for a brief time..
The word gymnasium comes from the Greek root Γυμνός (gumnos), which means “nude”.
from the article, it seems the main point of concern by those in charge was the material of bathing suits getting into the pool filtration system, killing the motors.
around the 60s, materials changed and the requirements seem to have as well.
of course, this doesn’t mean the public school pedos weren’t enjoying the show along the way.
Middle school...Binghamton NY 74-75...we swam in bathing suits. High school 76-80...same!
I can confirm that this was the rule at least through the sixties.
my older sisters convinced our mother to send me to our local parish Catholic school (without a pool) to avoid this.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I suppose that was a blessing.
Funny, I had forgotten.
I did in high school in the 70s.
Never heard of such a thing.
Here’s the reason:
“In 1885 ... all-male indoor pool in Brooklyn’s YMCA ... the fibers in the all-wool swim suits collected dirt and bacteria threatening swimmers’ health and the pool’s filtration system.”
Going into the military in the early 1970's we had open showers and latrines. There simply was no privacy and no one cared. That's the way it was, nothing sinister about it.
BTW I think girls wore swimsuits because of the variety of feminine hygiene options used at the time. Some were primitive by today's standards.