It's Not Always What Kids Learn....Sometimes It Is What They Don't Learn

We had a very tragic event happen in this town at the beginning of the summer.....a young man drowned on Lake Martin.  It was so very sad.  What I thought was the saddest part of the whole ordeal was that he did not know how to swim.  We live near a lake that many people use for swimming, boating, fishing, tanning....and it amazes me that someone who lives that close to this massive body of water...somehow never learned to swim.   But...that is my middle class thinking.  My kids all took swimming lessons when they were young.   I took swimming lessons when I was young....and yes...it cost, but not a lot.  I was a SAHM when my kids were small and took swimming lessons.....another middle class thing I guess.  I am a teacher....I am middle class (bottom end, but still middle class)....and sometimes I look at my students and wonder how come they don't know things I think they should.  Swimming would be one of them for sure.  I assume everyone takes swimming lessons....and of course you all know what happens when you assume.  Back to this student who drowned.  He was a teenager...and he drowned because he did not know how to swim!  I want you to understand that and dwell upon it.  When I read his obituary....there was no father listed....just a mom.  His mom was his sole support....he was never taken to swimming lessons....because she was probably working.  There is an old Indian proverb that tells you not to judge another person until you have walked a mile in their moccassins.  I am going to start this year off with that belief.  When I look at my classes I am going to look at them not from the eyes of a middle class person....but just from someone who has an inquiring mind and wants to know....the young man who drowned....could not swim.....what else are students not learning?  It is my job to find out!  Have a happy Tuesday!