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.

  • @Pea666@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    31
    edit-2
    10 months 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.

    • aardOPA
      link
      1410 months 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.

      • @SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        810 months ago

        It’s generally not taught by default in US schools, but some schools offer it as an elective and/or as a competitive sport. Maintaining a swimming pool is an expense that many schools, especially in poorer districts, cannot afford. Outside of schools, there are sometimes community swim classes at places like the YMCA, but those require the parents to be actively involved (like with many extracurricular activities) and usually are an additional expense.

        Physical education is usually a mandatory part of US schools through high school (where students graduate at around age 18), and schools often offer students a selection of sports for PE - I did fencing one year and wrestling, gymnastics, and archery other years - but swimming requires more infrastructure than a basketball court and some padded mats.

        • Maintaining a swimming pool is an expense that many schools, especially in poorer districts can’t afford.

          German here: the solution for most of the schools I went to and heard of (elementary) was to get a bus to drive to the next public swimming pool and they’d let us use it for a few hours. The government is funding that. And that solution worked for most of them, although I only managed to get do my swim test after swimming classes in school because I was anxious about it.

          • Iron Lynx
            link
            fedilink
            210 months ago

            NL here. It’s similar here. I remember the bus, our school would hire a coach to take group 3 (think six-year-olds) to swimming at the pool on the other side of town. And until you had at least one diploma, you were required to come along. By group five, everyone had at least a basic swimming diploma.

          • When I was a kid in Florida in elementary school, that’s what most elementary schools did, mine was next door to a swimming pool so we just walked. At the time I think it actually was mandated by the state - swimming pools in backyards are extremely common there and it was an upsettingly common occurrence for kids to drown in them, so they took a week to make sure we all knew how to tread water. I don’t know if Florida kids still learn how to tread water or if swimming lessons are now woke somehow.

        • aardOPA
          link
          410 months ago

          Physical education is usually a mandatory part of US schools through high school

          In Germany the same - but swimming classes are mandated by law from grade 3 onwards, though we started going from grade 1 back then.

      • TortoiseWrath
        link
        fedilink
        3
        edit-2
        10 months 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
          link
          fedilink
          English
          510 months 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.

          • TortoiseWrath
            link
            fedilink
            English
            310 months ago

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

        • aardOPA
          link
          310 months 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.

          • TortoiseWrath
            link
            fedilink
            2
            edit-2
            10 months 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.

      • Call me Lenny/Leni
        link
        fedilink
        English
        210 months ago

        Not where I am. It never came up, despite water technically being everywhere. People just assume I guess. Still not something I can do.

    • @Pea666@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      110 months ago

      It used to be part of the school curriculum but it was often after most children had at least learned the basics in swimming classes.

      There’s dedicated swimming schools, run by swimming pools and overseen by the government.