The swim unit is dreaded by most students that partake in it. From getting your hair soaking wet to smelling like chlorine, it is a hassle. Additionally, wearing a bathing suit is something that makes many students feel uncomfortable. Although swimming is an important skill to have, it is something we should not have to worry about in the school environment.

Getting ready is difficult enough in the morning. Although students get fifteen minutes to get ready for the rest of the day after swimming, many people need longer than that. It is really hard to dry your hair and reapply makeup in fifteen minutes. Also, with the temperature dropping outside, wet hair can attribute to chill throughout the day, particularly when the heat in the school is broken. With 10 minutes to get ready before and 15 after, that only leaves about 20 minutes to actually swim. The time is not used efficiently during the swim unit.

Another issue for both boys and girls is that many students feel uncomfortable wearing a bathing suit in front of classmates. If there was a way to still get a good grade without doing the swim unit, most people would choose not to swim. In gym, though, it is hard to get a good grade when you have a zero for three days. Swimming should be optional and there should be an alternate option for students who do not want to participate.

Learning to swim is an important skill, and it makes sense to have to learn how to swim at Yorktown with the easy access to the pool. The problem is, if you cannot do the specific strokes on the first day of the unit, you just sit in the kiddie pool. The main point is to make sure students can swim, but if they do not pass on the first day they will not have to opportunity to learn, and will not participate with the rest of the class. That can be embarrassing, and students who have not been provided the chance to learn how to swim should not have to go through that. There is no point in the swim unit if kids are not learning how to swim in the course of the three day unit.

For all of these reasons, swimming should not be a part of gym class for ninth and tenth graders. It adds even more stress to the students’ lives. Cold damp hair throughout the school day is not something that students look forward to. The swim unit is the worst part of gym class  no student should have to deal with.