Young children should know how to read, write and compute basic math. They should have strong social skills to interact with others. It wouldn’t hurt if they could make their own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
There is, however, a basic skill often overlooked until tragedy strikes: knowing how to swim.
Forty percent of Caucasians, 60 percent of Latinos and 70 percent of African Americans do not know how to swim, according to the USA Swimming foundation.
The consequences can be catastrophic. One of the worst drowning tragedies in our nation came in August 2010 when six African-American teenagers, none of whom could swim, drowned in the Red River in Louisiana. One teen had waded into waist-deep water to escape oppressive heat but slipped off a ledge into 25 feet of water. He was rescued by a bystander; friends and relatives who had tried to save him perished. Other family members did not know how to swim and watched helplessly.
Young African Americans are most susceptible to drownings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in a four-year study that the fatal drowning rate of African Americans between the ages of 5 and 14 was almost three times higher than whites of the same ages.