how many people have swimmers saved from drowning?

what you are referring to is almost always a young man showing off or trying to be too brave

and they die all over the shop doing that not just in water

it's sensible for a parent to teach their kids to swim, but it's not a life requirement.

what would be?

I can neither swim nor ride a bike. I don't like deep water, I avoid it whenever possible.

learning to read and write


It's in the same category to me as learning to drive. Nice if you can do it, but no great shakes if you can't

imagine bringing up a child that cant enjoy the beach and swimming pools water parks etc because you are too lazy to teach them to swim?

just awful

actually how on earth can you get through school not being able to swim? (unless their is a medical reason etc?)

its not really only on the parents. You can learn to swim at any point in your life.

People can have phobias which stop them being able to learn to swim. My auntie was knocked underwater by a dog when she was paddling as a young child, which created a fear of water in her. Then when she was supposed to be learning at school her fear made her refuse to get into the water, so her teacher picked her up and threw her in, increasing her anxiety tremendously. She gets into pools with her own children, as she sees the importance of swimming for them, but she can't take her feet off the bottom in order to learn herself.

Well another one is people thinking that because they can swim in their suit in a pool / in a wetsuit in open water, that they can also easily swim easily in a potential drowning situation. The reality is that fully clothed and wearing shoes (which would be most emergency situations), even competent swimmers can sink like a stone.