Yeah but that's Canada, thanks heavens there's nothing here like that!

"People are angry about Toronto's proposed school swimming-pool closings. Not just parents - all sorts of people. It's hit a nerve, and it's a gut reaction - as if the government were threatening to take away something from our children that's so essential it's considered a right, like food or air.

I myself learned to swim in Lake Superior at the age of 6, taught by my older brother, who wasn't telling the absolute truth when he said he wouldn't let go. Sink or swim was the lesson: You kick to stay afloat. So, lucky me: Unlike today's urban kids, I had a big, unpolluted lake to learn in.

But here's the drawback: I didn't learn to swim really well, because Lake Superior was so freezing cold you couldn't stay in for long without turning azure. And by the time I was old enough to know what a comparatively lousy swimmer I was, it was too late for me to shed my bad swimming habits. Swimming, like talking, is something kids learn best when they're young."

(Via globeandmail.com: Rich kids swim, poor kids sink: .)

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| in the news | 20 April 2008; 6:57:52 PM |# | | Discuss |