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.
Very interesting. I looked over the North Carolina information; they seem to have lost interest in this around 2004! My county has a few goal and suggestions listed - air quality education in day care centers? - but no programs or initiatives.
So I guess we're safe from health, for now!
"for now" being the operative phrase.........
Looks like they put a committee together to assess N.C.
http://www.healthycarolinians.org/assess.htm
Here is the data collection site:
http://www.schs.state.nc.us/SCHS/data/databook/
Data collection and reporting is updated as of January 27, 2006.
Massacuhusetts put in CO detector laws laws early this year.
In order to sell your house you will need them,along with smoke detectors,of course. All landlords have to both of them now for rental properties.
The universal language of the tyrant.
For the children.
Frightening stuff.
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