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Abstract
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The role of parents within learn-to-swim programs has become rather controversial, at least in the United States. As a result of perceived inappropriate interference by some parents, many programs ban parents, caregivers, and other family members from the pool area during lessons. Some programs don't even allow family members to observe their children in swim lessons from a distance such as from a balcony, spectator seats, or through windows in the pool. As both a parent and a swim instructor, I have seen different sides of this controversy and I believe I can offer a few insights and principles related to the issues involved.
It is critical for everyone involved in the learn-to-swim process to keep in mind that parents, first and foremost, have a sacred duty to protect their minor children and assure their optimal development. In modern society, the child development process frequently involves parent delegating some specialized educational responsibilities to individuals with training in early childhood or elementary education as well as other specialists such as swimming, dance, gymnastics, or music instructors. These individuals act in loco parentis, that is, "in place of the parents."
Like parents, instructors vary greatly in their skills, experience, and appreciation of child development principles. One consequence of the variability in instructor and program quality has been that some parents try to impose themselves into swim lessons, sometimes in inappropriate and even offensive ways. [As a side note, parental over-involvement in and control over their progeny's lives is increasing at the university level in the United States. Despite the fact that college students are mainly no longer minors in the legal sense, some parents call their student multiple times a day and write letters to upper administrators about real or perceived student problems. This type of parent and their behavior have been labeled "helicopter parents" due to their 'hovering behavior.']
Some directors and instructors of learn-to-swim programs have responded to interfering parents by creating bans on all parents' involvement or even presence during swim lessons. Such across the board bans, of course, are examples of gener- alizing to the exception rather than dealing with individual instances where parents may have acted inappropriately. They result in subverting the right of parents to be ultimately responsible for their child. In effect, these bans place temporary in loco parentis status of the program over the basic rights of the parents
Language: en |