In the interest of bi-partisinship, the President will appoint well known swimmer, Senator Ted Kennedy to oversea the department.
Senator John Kerry, Democrat MA will be responsible for developing the swimming training curriculum.
Posted on 08/05/2006 5:11:22 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Coming to every school in Connecticut: a state-mandated swimming pool? The idea is not that far-fetched if you follow the thinking of people alarmed by the recent spate of drownings in Connecticut.
Here's the road map: Several young people, mostly minorities who were non-swimmers, drowned this summer. In Connecticut, this constitutes a moral crisis requiring -- what else? -- a government solution.
An analysis of selectively culled and tortured data from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control reveals America has a "swimming gap," with racist origins, of course. Minority children 10 to 14 are more than four times as likely to drown than their white peers because, according to The Hartford Courant, Southern plantation owners prevented slaves from learning to swim so they would be less likely to escape. "(M)inority groups have historically been underrepresented in swimming lessons for a variety of reasons, including economics. Pools are sparse in the urban areas where so many minority families live."
This apparently compels the state to go off the deep end. One solution being bandied about would add to public-school curriculums a requirement that students get five hours of swimming lessons per year beginning in kindergarten. Of course, that would require the construction (with union labor) of hundreds of new school pools at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, plus the hiring of many more (unionized) gym teachers/swimming instructors. It's a state mandate waiting to happen. Opponents will be condemned as racists, and if that fails, there's always the old saw: "If it saves one life, it would be worth it."
No one would argue children should be taught to swim, but no drowning crisis exists. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 782 American children 14 or under drowned in 2003, the last year for which statistics are available, but drowning rates have been declining steadily in recent decades. Each drowning is a tragedy, but the National Safety Council says the average American child is more likely to die in a plane crash than drown accidentally.
Just about every municipality, as well as YMCAs and other nonprofit groups, offer swimming lessons at reasonable prices; most provide discounted or free lessons to low-income families.
The responsibility for teaching children to swim belongs to their parents, not the state. It's saner, simpler and far less expensive than another massive government debacle.
Stop sounding logical!
Healthy People 2010 plans on making mini communities out of the schools.
Onsite clinics, breakfast, lunch and dinner, pools.
I think the kids are suppose to sleep there too because I saw a junk science study come out about kids low performance in school due to lack of sleep.
The powers that be will need to monitor that.
I totally agree with you.
She wears the life jacket when we are over at our friends because there is a steep drop from the shallows and depending upon the tide it can be hard to judge where it is. Especially for a little one. Also, the wakes from the boats coming through there can cause some hefty swells.
I glanced through that thread..........but didn't get into it when I got home from work because of the numbers of the posts.
SHEESH.
duh.
I was thinking totals not percentages.
My mistake.
While these facts are true in a real world" kind of sense, they are not "officially" true. A government program to get large numbers of children of African origin into swimming pools may have unintended consequences.....
In the interest of bi-partisinship, the President will appoint well known swimmer, Senator Ted Kennedy to oversea the department.
Senator John Kerry, Democrat MA will be responsible for developing the swimming training curriculum.
LOL, was that necessary?
I think you missed the memo. It began with FDR, and is being strongly perpetuated by Democrats and Republicans alike. Most recently, witness W's signing of, No Child Left Behind, and Medicare Prescription Drugs bills.
Nope. All the wealthy ones moved to Dallas.
Thing about that is.....it was YOUR choice as the PARENT, not the government! Grrrrrrrrr
Bigger sigh... I'm 62. And mostly glad of it. I'm hoping to be gone before all the really bad stuff starts.
The Second American Revolution is coming. To borrow a line from Mike, it will be over borders, language and culture.
You, and any other person with a modicum of common sense...
the infowarrior
Thanks for the ping!
Let me guess, they need to raise tobacco and alcohol taxes to pay for them, right?
In a somewhat unrelated, but related manner, just today I received an advertisement from Scott's Corporation asking me to sign up for their lawn care service. I'm sure you all recall them as being one of the companies that have decided to test employees for off the job tobacco use and fire them if they ever smoke, anywhere.
Being the evil smoker I am, I sent it back with "WARNING: Sent by a smoking household" on the outside of the envelope. Inside, instead of the application order sheet, I wrote the following in a note; "Thank you for considering me for this service. However, I feel compelled to decline due to my being a tobacco user and your companies senibility against tobacco. As you are so concerned about the use of tobacco, a legal product, I would not like to subject any of your employees to my smoke. Again, thank you for thinking of me and I sincerely do regret my having to sever our over 30 year relationship of my using your product."
It seems like they had this plan when I was a child in the 70's, too. Fortunately, the public doesn't seem to go for it much!
But now they have the grant monies to bribe the politicos.
All fifty states have already signed on and are contractually obligated to inact the terms and conditions of the grant money. If not, the money has to be paid back. And the politicos immediately dump the monies down their rat holes.
http://www.phf.org/hp2010/ac1/efox.htm
(snip)
All 50 States are now participating in the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, providing the opportunity to create an interstate network of information on risks to health. Some 39 States have legislative mandates to collect uniform hospital discharge data.
Ah, that does make a difference. Sheesh!
Scary
VERY well done!
Bump!
"People of Irish descent, ditto."
I'm Irish and a female. I'm a floater in water, but put a beer in front of me and I sink to the bottom of it, every time! It must be genetic. ;)
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