Swimming brings pleasure to many people. It is a must-know activity in Sydney because of the fact that Sydney is a coastal place. In addition, it also avoids many health conditions. These facts often make me wonder –
Why is swimming never an activity that is taught in schools?
Why is it not made compulsory for each and every student?
A Pleasurable activity
It is vital to have something that gives you pleasure. For some it is art and craft, for others it’s swimming. This gratifying sport gives pleasure to many people because it’s an activity that involves teamwork. Not only that, but it is also a task you can complete at your own leisure and it’s an all-season sport. Teamwork is something that people find enriching, because of the fact that you can have more opportunities for growth, smarter risk-taking and better innovation. These things prove that swimming is something that must be compulsory in each school because what better way to teach how to work collaboratively in a group other than swimming? Instead of spending hours rambling about working together, you can teach this in 30 minutes during this sport.
As for people who hate working in a group, you have the chance to enjoy this sport in your own time. You can indulge in it any time of the year because you can adjust the water temperature. So, if there’s no excuse for the weather, why can’t you include this sport in educational institutions? Don’t you want to bring a tide of happiness over the school when you include this phenomenal sport?
A survival skill
The undeniable fact is that the age group that mostly drowns in Australia is years ten to fourteen. These ages are meant to be in school laughing, playing and sharing food. But unfortunately, because of schools not teaching and making swimming essential, these poor, innocent students tend to drown. Imagine if those students had learned how to swim in school, they would not have been at the mercy of lifeguards to save their lives. All prominent cities of Australia are along the coastline. Therefore, there is no denying the fact that swimming is an important survival skill that should be doubtlessly, absolutely and undeniably taught in schools.
A way to avoid health conditions
It is extremely evident that swimming can avoid many health conditions. Let’s take this example of a husband and a wife who were around 41 and 43. They were sedentary for many years. Professor Richard H wanted to test how swimming could change their life. His therapy was easy, the husband and wife had to swim one end to the other until they reached 1000 yards a day for 10 weeks. But before that they took 151 tests and they weren’t that good. After 10 weeks of swimming daily, their health conditions were 10 times better than before. Many such examples can be found that point to the fact that swimming has multiple benefits including heart size reduction, improvement in physical- fitness and feeling younger and more energetic. If we want a healthier generation that can participate in many tasks, swimming MUST be imperative to the school curriculum.
Be it developing good flexibility, strengthening your limbs or getting good sleep, swimming can achieve what many other sports cannot. We are looking at a generation that seems mostly tired and exhausted despite having a sedentary lifestyle. As they say, ‘If you want a different result, do something different!’ Hence, I would highly recommend that swimming be incorporated into the school curriculum so that we have a physically strong genesis!
Writer : Aarna Sharma
Grade : 6 (Year 2023)
Place : Sydney, Australia
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