Swimming, Week 2

Today was the second swimming class. This experience is much different from teaching in Los Pinos. The first day all but two were comfortable in the water. Today all of them were swimming. It may not look pretty yet, but they can move in the water. One boy was even asking if he could do flip turns at the end of the pool. That's advanced! They have all been submerged in water before whereas the kids from Los Pinos had not.

Only 12 of the 19 kids showed up. My coworker was surprised. The sun is so strong these days. It's horribly hot. She thought everyone would be eager to swim. In Los Pinos if we started out with 20 kids we were lucky to end up with five. It appears this group will be like Los Pinos in that manner. There is no sense of discipline or commitment.

I'm not sure how to teach commitment. We make the expectations clear from the beginning and everyone says YES YES YES. They understand. They are desperate to participate. They are furious if they are not included. Yet in the end they don't show up.

The class is only an hour long. It goes by so quickly! Feels like we are done as soon as we start. I'm glad these kids are more advanced because ten 1 hour classes is enough to teach them to feel comfortable in the water, but not much more.

The trainer's goal is to get kids comfortable in the water so they will be safe on their own one day. Her dream is that all of the city can learn to swim.