Okay, this is a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but given that the sun is now out and my three older kids have exchanged their soccer cleats and basketballs for another season of summer swimming, I have been thinking a fair bit about swimming, myself. I was also reminded of a favourite article of mine, by Herb Childress, Seventeen Reasons Why Football is Better Than School. While I don’t agree with it all, it does open up some interesting discussions.
So, with some inspiration from Childress’ list, just how could school be more like swimming?
When kids are grouped, age and ability matter
In swimming, levels and groups take age and maturity into account, and blend it with ability. Five-year-olds and 12 year-olds are not together, but there may be kids within a difference of three years of their age training together; as students improve, the groups are fluid enough to allow stronger swimmers to advance to new groups. Of course, in school, the December 31st / January 1st boundary is almost impenetrable.
Reporting clearly separates skills and work habits
I have given my life to education, and I will admit that I better understand my kids’ swim report cards than I do their school report cards. Their swimming report cards clearly indicate skills mastered and those in-progress. There are often comments about behaviour, work habits and attitude, but these are not confused with the other part of the report. In school, we often blend achievement and attitudes making it challenging to separate these two equally important, but very different, areas. Even with my own kids’ report cards, I will sometimes read it and ask “what does this really mean?”
Parents are expected to lend their expertise but not to be the coaches
Every parent in the swim club is expected to volunteer. We are not expected to coach (coaches coach), but all parents have some skills or expertise that can be transferred to benefit the group. Parents are more than just fundraisers and they are not quasi-coaches. In schools, parents expertise is not always expected, encouraged, or fully utilized.
Older kids are expected to work with younger kids
Kids can’t wait until they are old enough to spend time working with younger swimmers. Higher-level swimmers return and typically volunteer in the very youngest classes in order to keep coach/athlete ratios low and, over time, some will gain credentialing and transition into coaching roles. We do some of this in school, but it is often inconsistent, and we have no great laddering or apprenticeship from keen and interested student to future classroom teacher.
Kids work as individuals and as part of a team
Swimming is an individual sport. Individuals are responsible for their own performances. That said, there is a collective component to swimming where results are aggregated together for the team. Teammates cheer for each other’s success in ways we don’t see in classrooms. It is a rare classroom that celebrates the overall achievement of the students.
There are at least six or seven practices to every competition
There are hours and hours of practices with very few competitions. Better yet, kids often select which competitions to attend, knowing, in the end, it is about their own best times, so attending all competitions may not be right for them. In schools, we often quiz and test on an almost-daily basis in some areas — partly, to continually monitor progress, and for a range of other reasons including a belief that it helps ensure on-task behaviour.
Coaches share a plan with athletes before practice, and then post it publicly
Each practice has a particular focus that is explained to the athletes at the beginning, and then the practice plan is outlined on the board for the swimmers to track their practice. This is similar to what we see with some teachers and their use of overviews and visual calendars in the classroom, but in swimming, it has a uniformity which kids follow from day-to-day and year-to-year.
Coaches give constant feedback
On almost every length, coaches give feedback to swimmers. They will stop athletes and re-set them with constructive feedback when necessary. Coaches are also not afraid to get in the water and model the drills and strokes for the athletes. Very often, coaches still see themselves as athletes as well and are doing their own training (learning).
While there is competition, most kids are obsessed with their own best times
My kids couldn’t tell you about what they won or how they placed, but they can always tell me if their times have improved. While there is always a competitive piece to swimming, as in school, much of the competition is focused on individual improvement and not their success relative to others. I would love my children to have the same passion for their best art work at school, or strongest English composition, as they have for their new PB (personal best) in a given swimming discipline.
Nobody talks about averages
In the end, it is about celebrating the best performance in each discipline. There is never a discussion at swimming that a swimmer swam this much at the beginning of the year and that much at the end; their real level is an average of the two times. Athletes have multiple opportunities over time to display best results.
Yes, it is a little simplistic. I also realize I am far from a swimming expert and while I have spent thousands of hours in gymnasiums coaching basketball over the last two decades, my swimming experience is really as a parent in Red Cross Swim Lessons and two summers of Summer Swimming. And, I could probably write a similar post arguing the opposite about how swimming could and should be more like school.
That said, in education and working with young people, sometimes we need to look around for other models that have some pretty appealing characteristics.
cultureofyes.ca 
Hey Chris. What do they say about “great minds”? I am just in the process of writing my next “Teaching Out Loud” blog. The topic? What sport most resonates with your approach to teaching and learning!
Thanks for this…I’m going to come back to it when I’m done!
Thanks Stephen – I hope it is great minds, because I think they also say something about fools 🙂
I look forward to seeing and connecting with your upcoming post.
Chris
Great thoughts – and so true. Sport can give a lot to both athletes and parents when all things are in perspective. Your points support the Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) that is (or should be) the background for all athlete development. Individual sports such as swimming are further advanced but those of us who are also involved in team sports can see the changes coming.
As an aside I hope all parents read this very carefully
Hopefully swimming and basketball will lead the athlete centred approach to sports and education will be able to gain more insight in youth development.
Lawrie
Thanks Lawrie – just as sports can and should become more athlete-centred, schools need to continue to become more student-centred. I think both sports and school suffer from too often being organized around the hopes and dreams of the adults instead of the kids.
Thanks for another great post, Chris. I spent last weekend at my son’s track and field meet … where I spend most of my spring and summer weekends. I got a kick out of a T-shirt one of the other parents was wearing … “My sport doesn’t take a time out!”. It made me think about learning. As we get ready for the end of the school year and the beginning of summer vacations, it’s good to remember that our sport (learning) doesn’t take a time out either 🙂
Hyacinth
Yes, great point – they key is to make sure students and their parents know how to continue to be engaged in learning, when it might be less formal than during the school year.
Opposing your view, Chris, there are seldom-aired advantages to “ungrouped” learning, which can be termed “ungraded”, as in the personal story below.
I started school in a one room country school of eight grades, called an “ungraded classroom”. Students advanced through the material at their own pace, but the teacher, my mother, could not teach everyone at once. So she relied on leadership from the older to help the younger. The younger were keen on working with the older, which really helped the teacher. There was little grouping, but lots of interaction with those who had experience.
There was a natural and accepted hierarchy of leadership, seldom achieved in grouped students. Peer pressure and tension from too much competition were virtually non-existent. It’s a misconception that students only thrive with competition.
The work world can be compared to an ungraded one room school. When it comes to the pervasive retraining, the seniors teach the juniors. Those who have developed learning in ungrouped situations are better fitted for success.
This thesis suggests that non-grouped learning provides better for success in a future life in business.
Thanks Joel – a really interesting story about non-grouped learning. I think we are seeing more of this in the informal sector – I think of online communities that develop their own hierarchies not tied to age or grade, yet in formal learning we are much slower to adopt these ideas.
Hi Chris,
I have feel the exact same way when I read my daughter’s swimming progress report. The outcomes are laid out very specifically and clearly. My daughter either meet the outcome or it is left blank to continue at another time – perhaps even when she’s had to continue the learning of the goals of that level with another set of lessons (notice how I did not say “repeat” because she did not “repeat” the level, but just continued her learning where she left off). Her instructors always left a comment at the end of the session with information about her work habits and her effort.
It’s interesting to compare different disciplines. It would be great to take the best of all and implement the ideas in our schools.
Thanks for the post, Chris!
Tia
Thanks Tia. It is interesting how simple and yet how informative swim report cards are for the students. And your point is a really good one, the students just pick-up at the next lesson-set where they left off – and focus on the areas that need work.
Thank you go to Irwin Park and told uws about your job.
Thanks Suling. It was great to come to your school today!
I agree with you Chris. I think it doesn’t really matter how much better you do then others, as long as you do good. I especially agree that school report cards should be more like swimming report card , short and says what you can do and what you can’t. I also want to say thanks for coming to talk to the grade 7 classes at Irwin Park.
Thanks Daniel – I am glad to hear that some of the comments I made in my blog post comparing swimming to school made sense to you. Hopefully if you do have questions about your report cards you take the time to ask questions so you understand the key areas that you need to focus on for improvement.
Thank you for coming to our school today and talk to us. It was amazing! This blog was very nice, too. Thanks again!
Thanks Yeji for the comment. I am glad you enjoyed the conversation today. I hope you were able to find some key themes – around communication, work ethic, and others that are applicable for a number of careers.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, and to comment.
Thank you for coming to Irwin park; and I agree that swimming report cards are more strait forward and I find myself improving more wen its strait forward
Thanks Bradley for the comment. It is interesting that you also find your swim report card to be easier to read and understand. Hopefully if you have questions about your school report card you ask questions to better understand areas that you can improve. Thanks for reading my blog and taking the time to comment.
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I like this perspective. I often reflect on my experience (successes and failures) in sport compared to education and the theories behind them both. I am particularly interested in the work ethic and what seems to drive and motivate in sport and how that can be applied to the classroom. Hmm…
Thanks Sarah. Another interesting comparison is how can we engage parents in students success with learning in similar ways to which we engage them with sports. Even as an informed parent, I find myself more engaged in my kids’ athletics and arts than I do in their academics.
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