574
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by aard@kyu.de to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I was thinking about that when I was dropping my 6 year old off at some hobbies earlier - it's pretty much expected to have learned how to ride a bicycle before starting school, and it massively expands the area you can go to by yourself. When she went to school by bicycle she can easily make a detour via a shop to spend some pocket money before coming home, while by foot that'd be rather time consuming.

Quite a lot of friends from outside of Europe either can't ride a bicycle, or were learning it as adult after moving here, though.

edit: the high number of replies mentioning "swimming" made me realize that I had that filed as a basic skill pretty much everybody has - probably due to swimming lessons being a mandatory part of school education here.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Mudface@lemmy.world 81 points 1 year ago

In Ontario, it’s often swimming.

Lots of lakes here, children need to be taught to swim

[-] Pea666@feddit.nl 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Dutchy here.

Most, if not all, children learn to swim when they reach age five. Lots of water here, it’s pretty much a basic life/survival skill.

[-] aard@kyu.de 12 points 1 year ago

That leads to a follow up question to people from different areas: Is swimming a regular part of school sports?

I grew up in Germany with pretty much no lakes, and we had blocks of sports classes in the swimming pool from first grade - didn't make me a great swimmer, but I can go swim a bit in a lake without having to worry.

Now we're in Finland (lots of lakes here), and also swimming classes take place from first grade.

[-] tortoise@tortoisewrath.com 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

American here. The nearest swimming pool to my hometown was in Canada. So no.

Edit: I don't think this is normal

[-] Fosheze@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Also american here and I learned to swim before I started preschool. But I also live in the land of 10,000 lakes so it's basically a requirement here. So this is another one of those things that is going to depend on which state you're in.

[-] tortoise@tortoisewrath.com 3 points 1 year ago

Oh yeah, I make no claim that any of my experiences are anywhere near universal. Basically no part of the American experience is.

[-] aard@kyu.de 3 points 1 year ago

How big distances / population are we talking here?

I was growing up in a small village, so in elementary school we went by bus to a nearby village with 7000 inhabitants and a swimming pool.

Now we're living in a town with a population of 46000 with its own swimming pool.

[-] tortoise@tortoisewrath.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, a small village. It would have been a half-hour bus ride to the town of ~5000, but they couldn't compel all students to get a passport, and the nearest pool in the US would have been about an hour and a half away, so it was never part of the curriculum. Some kids had their parents drive them to Canada after school for private (expensive?) swimming lessons, but it wasn't standard.

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
load more comments (12 replies)
this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
574 points (98.3% liked)

Asklemmy

43324 readers
973 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS