Single Gender Swim Classes and Swim Times

[SwimForHealth]

My nephews attend a school where the swim classes are coed. They are somewhat shy wearing swim suits around girls. About 3/4 of the school is female. They have been allowed to wear rashtops with their suits.

Should swim class be mixed or single gender?

Similarly the open swim times in the school are co-ed and girls only. Should male swimmers have single gender swim times as well?

[Torchwatch]

If there are girls only swim sessions then there should also be boys only sessions or the policy would be discriminatory.
How old is your nephew ?
Boys go into puberty later than girls, leaving the boys feeling shy and immature, then when puberty hits the boys loose control of their changing bodies. The girls will look for older boyfriends who are more muscular and mature while treating their own age group boys as wimps and kids.
The wearing of big shorts and rash guards is not the solution for a minority of boys to swim in a girl dominated school. Get you nephew to watch the 2nd tv series of Waterboys, the Japanese boys synchro story.

[Torchwatch]

Thinking about it your nephew's school seems to want to airbrush out the remaining boys. No boy would choose to go to this school and be outnumbered and dominated by girls and the school will rapidly become 100% girls and attract only female teachers.

It's better for the boys to stand up and be counted rather disappear under rubber swim caps, rash guards and jammers.

Buy them water polo hats and briefs in a very bright colour and tell them to set up a boys water polo team. The school will either ban them or give them pool time. It might be the worst water polo team in the state but it will be theirs.

There is a Japanese tv serial about a school water polo team if you can find it.

[SwimForHealth]

Blame my sister. She chose a private school based founded on feminist principles.

All sporting squads in the school are co-ed including wrestling, lacrosse, water polo, synchro (don't think any of the boys do it though), soccer, and volleyball and they compete in boys or coed conferences. So boys and girls might be mixed together on one team. In wrestling younger nephew wrestles females and males. At his age the girls are taller and faster in wrestling.

My older nephew challenged one of the girls to a swim race and well had it handed to him. Two laps of the pool and he finished nearly half a length of the pool behind his female opponent.

A changing world.

[Torchwatch]

In England some years ago there was a shortage of choirboys, many churches and even cathedrals started to allow girls to join their junior choirs. The sound produced by these mixed choirs was sweet but distinctly different to an all boy choir. As time went on the older boys voices broke but the girls were able to continue in the choir. The solo parts that go to the most experienced and proficient singers started to go to the older girls, while boys voices would break without ever trying the solo parts. Younger boys joining the choirs would find them dominated by older girls and finding no older boy role models would rapidly leave. Girls gradually dominated and took over most of the mixed choirs. Only the larger churches and cathedrals were able to separate and restart their boys and girls choirs.

The minority of younger boys in your nephew's school will find themselves dominated by girls the same age and older taking part in what are traditionally boy sports. As the boys reach puberty and begin to develop greater strength and speed they will overtake the girls who will drop out and get into girl sports and events.

To see how bad things could get you really should watch the 2nd tv series of Waterboys, start here with the original movie http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5z5do3

[Mollyk]

Originally Posted by SwimForHealth

My nephews attend a school where the swim classes are coed. They are somewhat shy wearing swim suits around girls. About 3/4 of the school is female. They have been allowed to wear rashtops with their suits.

Should swim class be mixed or single gender?

Similarly the open swim times in the school are co-ed and girls only. Should male swimmers have single gender swim times as well?

I have always thought that swim class and swimming should be mixed. I know in secondary school often swimming is part of physical education and those classes are on gender lines.

I teach swimming classes that are women and men.

Keep swimming fun. Keep it co-ed.

[Torchwatch]

My primary school sent us to be taught to swim by Mrs Fox, luckily i could already swim because most of the boys and girls that couldn't swim were more afraid of Mrs Fox than of the water.
A woman teacher like that should not have been allowed near children.

A teaching swimming pool should be a fun and sensual experience even if you can't swim, discovering that you can float and swim should be a pleasure. Overcoming a child's fear a water should not be through reinforcing their fear of adults.

If bullying is taking place in a swimming class it can easily become a dangerous place. That any child should want to cover their body during a swim class is a sign that something is wrong, if all the boys want to wear rash guards they are under pressure from their teacher, the girls in the class or both, this is not a happy class and the boys will learn to hate swimming. These boys need to swim without those girls around and with a male teacher.

So often we expect women teachers to be good with children and so often we discover them to be cruel and sadistic. One of my nephews was a happily talking child until a woman teacher at primary school terrified him so badly and for so long that even now as an adult and a father he is unable to speak clearly and openly.

We don't need male or female teachers, we need good teachers. We don't need co-ed or single sex classes but classes where children can learn to swim without fear of either the teacher or others in the class.

[Mollyk]

Originally Posted by Torchwatch

My primary school sent us to be taught to swim by Mrs Fox, luckily i could already swim because most of the boys and girls that couldn't swim were more afraid of Mrs Fox than of the water.
A woman teacher like that should not have been allowed near children.

A teaching swimming pool should be a fun and sensual experience even if you can't swim, discovering that you can float and swim should be a pleasure. Overcoming a child's fear a water should not be through reinforcing their fear of adults.

If bullying is taking place in a swimming class it can easily become a dangerous place. That any child should want to cover their body during a swim class is a sign that something is wrong, if all the boys want to wear rash guards they are under pressure from their teacher, the girls in the class or both, this is not a happy class and the boys will learn to hate swimming. These boys need to swim without those girls around and with a male teacher.

So often we expect women teachers to be good with children and so often we discover them to be cruel and sadistic. One of my nephews was a happily talking child until a woman teacher at primary school terrified him so badly and for so long that even now as an adult and a father he is unable to speak clearly and openly.

We don't need male or female teachers, we need good teachers. We don't need co-ed or single sex classes but classes where children can learn to swim without fear of either the teacher or others in the class.

So well said. Make swimming enjoyable and fun for kids.

[Mollyk]

Originally Posted by SwimForHealth

My nephews attend a school where the swim classes are coed. They are somewhat shy wearing swim suits around girls. About 3/4 of the school is female. They have been allowed to wear rashtops with their suits.

Should swim class be mixed or single gender?

Similarly the open swim times in the school are co-ed and girls only. Should male swimmers have single gender swim times as well?

The boys should be permitted the choice of simply swim briefs or a brief with a rashtop. Just as girls wear different styles of onesies or two piece costumes.

Let them be comfortable. If boys wish a single gender class setting, then allow it.

[Torchwatch]

Boys should be allowed to give up swimming under these circumstances.