“Well begun is half done.” — Marry Poppins
Nearly 60 students jump into the pool on the first day of Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Summer Dreamers at Swim & Water Polo. The students get to perform in an routine that we call a “Show Off Swim.”
Lots are afraid on the first days as many of the students do not get to the swim pool that often. Our class is filled with beginners. The transformation into aquatic athletes starts with a parade shown in the video below. Do your best to swim across the pool, climb out, walk back to the start and try again. If you can’t swim, fake it, or else walk, run and hope.
Show us the best you’ve got. Get across the pool. Swim freestyle. Stay off the bottom. Close your lips. Float. Kick. Use your arms. Pull. Keep going. Try. All the way. Head down. Hold your breath. Go. You can do it too.
Summer Dreamers offers 27 days of “summer school.” The students get to swim every day, if things go as we hope. A few weeks later, all the kids are swimming across the deep end. They learn a life-skill. We have fun.
The progress and achievements that these kids earn for themselves in this program is hard to describe to the typical, non-swimming, school district bureaucrat.
In Later Weeks: Game on!
Swimming on the weekends and a skill for life
Swimming is a good thing
