Do you still need to take P.E. to graduate?

[kphoger]

Around here, we only have about 3 days of swimming weather all year.

In Kentucky?  Wow, how warm does it have to be for you to want to take a dip?  By my standards, y'alls swimming weather starts in about a month.

That's what I was thinking!  As a very skinny person who doesn't like swimming if the temperature is below 90°F, even I wouldn't claim that my personal comfort zone is the definition of 'swimming weather'.

[kalvado]

Around here, we only have about 3 days of swimming weather all year.

In Kentucky?  Wow, how warm does it have to be for you to want to take a dip?  By my standards, y'alls swimming weather starts in about a month.

Your locationm even rough,  may help to determine your comfort temperature range.
Alternatively, indoor pools can be comfortable 24-7, even if they are not available at all those times.

[bandit957]

Around here, we only have about 3 days of swimming weather all year.

In Kentucky?  Wow, how warm does it have to be for you to want to take a dip?  By my standards, y'alls swimming weather starts in about a month.

It rains a lot here.

[kphoger]

Around here, we only have about 3 days of swimming weather all year.

In Kentucky?  Wow, how warm does it have to be for you to want to take a dip?  By my standards, y'alls swimming weather starts in about a month.

It rains a lot here.

Dang!  I just looked it up, and June has an average of 13 days with precipitation in Cincinnati.  The two warmest months are July and August, and they average 19 days (30%) with precipitation between them.

[Scott5114]

Swimming in the rain is nice, so long as there's no lightning to be a hazard. The really unpleasant thing is swimming after the rain, because rainwater tends to be so cold it makes the pool water temperature drop by 5-10 degrees, and it takes a few days for the water to warm back up.

[Max Rockatansky]

I grew up around water and was taught how to swim when I was young.  That said I can't really say that I enjoy being in water in general much less swimming.  My wife thinks it's odd when she has me take her to the beach and I do what I can to not go swimming.

[Roadgeekteen]

I grew up around water and was taught how to swim when I was young.  That said I can't really say that I enjoy being in water in general much less swimming.  My wife thinks it's odd when she has me take her to the beach and I do what I can to not go swimming.

I literally only swam to pass my boy scout swim test. I don't think I've been in the pool since then (Feburary 2020). I like being near the water, but not in the water.

[Max Rockatansky]

I grew up around water and was taught how to swim when I was young.  That said I can't really say that I enjoy being in water in general much less swimming.  My wife thinks it's odd when she has me take her to the beach and I do what I can to not go swimming.

I literally only swam to pass my boy scout swim test. I don't think I've been in the pool since then (Feburary 2020). I like being near the water, but not in the water.

I once owned a house with a 15 foot deep pool.  My dog loved to swim in it, all I used it for was to occasionally take a nap on air mattress or float.

[Roadgeekteen]

I grew up around water and was taught how to swim when I was young.  That said I can't really say that I enjoy being in water in general much less swimming.  My wife thinks it's odd when she has me take her to the beach and I do what I can to not go swimming.

I literally only swam to pass my boy scout swim test. I don't think I've been in the pool since then (Feburary 2020). I like being near the water, but not in the water.

I once owned a house with a 15 foot deep pool.  My dog loved to swim in it, all I used it for was to occasionally take a nap on air mattress or float.

People don't really have pools at their house up in New England. At least I've never known anyone with one.

[Rothman]

I grew up around water and was taught how to swim when I was young.  That said I can't really say that I enjoy being in water in general much less swimming.  My wife thinks it's odd when she has me take her to the beach and I do what I can to not go swimming.

I literally only swam to pass my boy scout swim test. I don't think I've been in the pool since then (Feburary 2020). I like being near the water, but not in the water.

I once owned a house with a 15 foot deep pool.  My dog loved to swim in it, all I used it for was to occasionally take a nap on air mattress or float.

People don't really have pools at their house up in New England. At least I've never known anyone with one.

The bias of your own experience...

I've swam in pools at friends' houses in New England.

Wait a minute, you're in Amherst, right?  Lots of people with pools just in that town!  Get off campus more.

[webny99]

Around here, we only have about 3 days of swimming weather all year.

In Kentucky?  Wow, how warm does it have to be for you to want to take a dip?  By my standards, y'alls swimming weather starts in about a month.

It rains a lot here.

Dang!  I just looked it up, and June has an average of 13 days with precipitation in Cincinnati.  The two warmest months are July and August, and they average 19 days (30%) with precipitation between them.

Did that seem like a lot to you? It doesn't stand out to me as high or low.

[webny99]

Many high schools with pools required that students be able to swim a lap across the pool to graduate.

Thank goodness that wasn't the case for me, as I would've flunked.

Like RGT and Max, I don't mind being near the water. I'm perfectly fine relaxing on the beach, wading up to waist/chest level, walking/jogging, and enjoyed stuff like making moats in the sand and playing water games when I was younger. But I've never been any good at swimming, never had a strong incentive to get better at it growing up, and am highly averse to putting my head underwater.

[Roadgeekteen]

Many high schools with pools required that students be able to swim a lap across the pool to graduate.

Thank goodness that wasn't the case for me, as I would've flunked.

Like RGT and Max, I don't mind being near the water. I'm perfectly fine relaxing on the beach, wading up to waist/chest level, walking/jogging, and enjoyed stuff like making moats in the sand and playing water games when I was younger. But I've never been any good at swimming, never had a strong incentive to get better at it growing up, and am highly averse to putting my head underwater.

Honestly swimming isn't that hard to BS your way through a little bit of it. Especially schools who probably don't have very strict requirements.

[SectorZ]

I grew up around water and was taught how to swim when I was young.  That said I can't really say that I enjoy being in water in general much less swimming.  My wife thinks it's odd when she has me take her to the beach and I do what I can to not go swimming.

I literally only swam to pass my boy scout swim test. I don't think I've been in the pool since then (Feburary 2020). I like being near the water, but not in the water.

I once owned a house with a 15 foot deep pool.  My dog loved to swim in it, all I used it for was to occasionally take a nap on air mattress or float.

People don't really have pools at their house up in New England. At least I've never known anyone with one.

Really? Not a lot of people have a pool, but I'd argue at least 10% do in southern New England (my neighborhood is 3 out of 18). I had one at both my childhood houses at one point.

I also got to take swimming lessons at nearby Shawsheen Tech which was nice. I haven't done much swimming since my parents got rid of their campsite in NH, only a couple indoor pools at hotels.

[hotdogPi]

On my walks (and I've walked over 260 miles of unique roads), I very rarely see them, although it's nonzero. (I don't pay attention to them either, so I might be missing some.) However, I know two houses with a pool that I've been in that aren't visible from the road (one inflatable, the other inside the ground), so not seeing them doesn't mean they don't exist.

[webny99]

On my walks (and I've walked over 260 miles of unique roads), I very rarely see them, although it's nonzero. (I don't pay attention to them either, so I might be missing some.) However, I know two houses with a pool that I've been in that aren't visible from the road (one inflatable, the other inside the ground), so not seeing them doesn't mean they don't exist.

I would guess that the vast majority of pools are not visible from the road by design. Google satellite view would probably lend itself to a more accurate count than walking/driving through a neighborhood.

(I think my neighborhood has 5 of 42, but even using satellite there's a lot of big trees, so I can't be 100% certain. This seems like about average for the area or perhaps a bit less than average; but to put it bluntly, pools are quite common in high-income areas and almost non-existent in low-income areas.)

[SectorZ]

On my walks (and I've walked over 260 miles of unique roads), I very rarely see them, although it's nonzero. (I don't pay attention to them either, so I might be missing some.) However, I know two houses with a pool that I've been in that aren't visible from the road (one inflatable, the other inside the ground), so not seeing them doesn't mean they don't exist.

Of the 3 I mentioned in my neighborhood, 2 are impossible to see from the road as they are surrounded by a fence, especially since they're in-ground pools you practically need a fence for liability purposes.

The third pool of the three has its own news story, which is never a good thing... (an almost-drowning)

[Max Rockatansky]

I grew up around water and was taught how to swim when I was young.  That said I can't really say that I enjoy being in water in general much less swimming.  My wife thinks it's odd when she has me take her to the beach and I do what I can to not go swimming.

I literally only swam to pass my boy scout swim test. I don't think I've been in the pool since then (Feburary 2020). I like being near the water, but not in the water.

I once owned a house with a 15 foot deep pool.  My dog loved to swim in it, all I used it for was to occasionally take a nap on air mattress or float.

People don't really have pools at their house up in New England. At least I've never known anyone with one.

I wish that I didn't have one either, it was a pain in the ass to maintain.  Irony being I learned how to maintain a pool when my Dad taught me in middle school, specifically at our house in Connecticut.

[kphoger]

Around here, we only have about 3 days of swimming weather all year.

In Kentucky?  Wow, how warm does it have to be for you to want to take a dip?  By my standards, y'alls swimming weather starts in about a month.

It rains a lot here.

Dang!  I just looked it up, and June has an average of 13 days with precipitation in Cincinnati.  The two warmest months are July and August, and they average 19 days (30%) with precipitation between them.

Did that seem like a lot to you? It doesn't stand out to me as high or low.

Yes, it did.  Nearly half of the days have precipitation.  Assuming some of the remaining days are cooler than average, I can see why someone might consider the swimming weather days to be few and far between.  Then again, I'm from Kansas.

[zachary_amaryllis]

I grew up around water and was taught how to swim when I was young.  That said I can't really say that I enjoy being in water in general much less swimming.  My wife thinks it's odd when she has me take her to the beach and I do what I can to not go swimming.

I literally only swam to pass my boy scout swim test. I don't think I've been in the pool since then (Feburary 2020). I like being near the water, but not in the water.

I once owned a house with a 15 foot deep pool.  My dog loved to swim in it, all I used it for was to occasionally take a nap on air mattress or float.

People don't really have pools at their house up in New England. At least I've never known anyone with one.

I wish that I didn't have one either, it was a pain in the ass to maintain.  Irony being I learned how to maintain a pool when my Dad taught me in middle school, specifically at our house in Connecticut.

Thank [whoever] for the fact that there's a river right in my back yard.

[kkt]

PE in my high school in California was required in 9th and 10th grades, I think optional after that.  Also there was some provision for opting out if you were in a sport.

We were also required to pass a swimming test.  I don't remember exactly - some laps, some backfloat.

PE in kid's high school in Seattle was similar.  They definitely allow opting out if you're in a sport, and aikido counts as a sport (even though you're only competing with yourself). Besides liking aikido more than running around a track or whatever, it also leaves more room in your schedule because Seattle only offered a six period day - language arts, math, science, social studies, a foreign language, and add PE and that would be your day - no electives for you!

[Roadgeekteen]

It seems like opting out of PE is super common in many schools. No such thing at my high school. It wouldn't make a ton of sense given that health class was integrated into PE class as a unit.

[kphoger]

Thank [whoever] for the fact that there's a river right in my back yard.

This isn't about Goat Jesus¹, is it?

[J N Winkler]

Looking back on PE classes, I can't help but be incredibly frustrated at the sheer amount of potential that was squandered. There was too much "okay, today we're doing X!" without any actual education about it.

For example, when I was in middle school, there was a unit where they just turned us loose in the football players' weight room, with no explanation of proper form, how to avoid injuries, what exercises worked on which muscles, or how to build a comprehensive weightlifting routine. All of that would have been information that would have come in handy later in life, and I'd probably be a good decade or so ahead on my fitness goals if Coach Paulk had actually done his damn job for once. There was also absolutely no accommodation for anyone who was unable to lift the 45-lb barbell with no weights on it. (I made do by disassembling a broom and putting weights on the broomstick, which got me made fun of, but at least I got to bench something.)

I think this is pretty normal for PE as taught in the US to meet graduation requirements.  Being allowed to handle the actual weights was more than we got when we were shown the weight room as part of PE class--everything I know about weightlifting I learned well after I finished my undergraduate degrees.

It is a little difficult for me to comprehend someone of adult age not being able to swim, although I suppose it makes some amount of sense if someone grew up without adequate facilities to swim in, like neighbors with a backyard pool or a nearby natural body of water. I am a little surprised that someone wouldn't pick up the skill after adulthood, though, if only for basic survival in an emergency situation.

There are still lingering racial disparities in ability to swim since "separate but equal," as actually applied back when it was still controlling judicial precedent, did not mean that municipalities had to allocate money to build and operate pools for Black people to use.  This came into play in Wichita several years ago and led to the McAdams pool (the closest to the historically Black part of town) being exempted from conversion to a splash pad.

Although we occasionally used the city-owned pool at Orchard Park, nearly all of my swimming instruction took place at a private pool for which we had to buy a membership annually.

Can we all agree, at least, that The Rope™ should be eliminated as a tool of humiliation and/or torture?

At my PE class there was no rope in sight, whether for climbing or for tug-of-war.

I would guess that the vast majority of pools are not visible from the road by design. Google satellite view would probably lend itself to a more accurate count than walking/driving through a neighborhood.

(I think my neighborhood has 5 of 42, but even using satellite there's a lot of big trees, so I can't be 100% certain. This seems like about average for the area or perhaps a bit less than average; but to put it bluntly, pools are quite common in high-income areas and almost non-existent in low-income areas.)

Pools need to be fenced not just for privacy, but also to limit tort liability, and that can easily cost over $5,000 just on its own (the current US national average cost for board fencing is about $23 per linear foot and a house on a quarter-acre lot can easily need about 200 linear feet to enclose its backyard completely).  It actually surprises me a little that the proportion of houses with outdoor pools reaches as high as 10% even in affluent neighborhoods in northern latitudes (Köppen climate zone Dfa/Dfb).  On my street, which I would characterize as comfortable but not affluent, four houses out of 40 have outdoor pools that are visible in satellite imagery, and we have good pool weather for about four months extending from mid-May to mid-September (Köppen climate zone Cfa).

[webny99]

Pools need to be fenced not just for privacy, but also to limit tort liability, and that can easily cost over $5,000 just on its own (the current US national average cost for board fencing is about $23 per linear foot and a house on a quarter-acre lot can easily need about 200 linear feet to enclose its backyard completely).

Does this apply mostly to negligence, or are there other factors as well?

It actually surprises me a little that the proportion of houses with outdoor pools reaches as high as 10% even in affluent neighborhoods in northern latitudes (Köppen climate zone Dfa/Dfb).  On my street, which I would characterize as comfortable but not affluent, four houses out of 40 have outdoor pools that are visible in satellite imagery, and we have good pool weather for about four months extending from mid-May to mid-September (Köppen climate zone Cfa).

To add to your surprise, I know of a street in Webster, NY where the count of homes with visible pools is nearly 50% (at least 22 of 46), and in an area with similar or even more limited pool weather. (Here is a link to the satellite view. Note that I have no personal connection to the street, but have driven down it as the elevation and visibility from the Sea Breeze pier area piqued my interest.)