Story and photos by Emma Fouke ’30
During the MICDS Winter Term, you can find many Middle School Rams on the Upper School Campus, swimming in the pool. After taking the long hike up from the Middle School after PE, fifth and sixth-grade students are welcomed into the Steward Family Aquatic Center by Middle School PE Teacher & Director of Aquatics Programs & Facilities Khannie Dastgah and Middle School Science Teacher Callie Bambenek.
For many, the area felt warm and comfortable, despite the dropping temperature. Although for others, the pool seemed no warmer than the pond outside. According to Coach Khannie, “In the fifth and sixth-grade class we have a really wide variety of levels, beginner swimmers, kids who have never swam before on their own, all the way up to advanced swimmers who do swim teams. We are really designing and doing this for what each student needs.”
There were children who, prior to this course, were not able to swim, and were terrified of the water. Jasmine Bell ’31 said, “I signed up for this Winter Term course to actually be a good swimmer, because I used to be afraid of the water. And, also, I want to teach my family how to swim.” Many of us take for granted the ease we have in the water, the feeling of safety. But for many others in our community, swimming does not bring that ease, and have never been taught how to swim. In the Rams Can Swim course, water safety is the largest priority, which is why instead of these coaches throwing their students into the water, they chose to start on land.
The coaches believed that in order to know what to do in the pool, you had to know what to do on land first. Children began their classes each day in the classroom, watching and listening to instructional videos on their laptops, along with doing some stroke technique exercises with Coach Khannie. The swimmers were taught the technique for each stroke—butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle—which flip turns were used with each stroke, and the correct approach to use off of the diving boards. Students had the opportunity to ask questions about whatever came to mind, including which versions of strokes were fastest and the proper place to put your arms during a front dive.
Once they made their way into the water, the kids split up into groups based on their abilities and worked during the class period on different skills according to their needs. Some who had never swum before could not even get into the water because of sheer terror, and by the last days, were jumping into the deep end or kicking on their back. Bambenek remarked on this progression by saying, “We’ve got a couple of new swimmers who are literally learning how to swim…so then getting to see the paddling and using their legs and just feeling confident in their bodies is like second to none. It’s like watching my own kids learn how to swim.”
Within the group of kids that came into the class already learning to swim, there was a common theme of why they had chosen to take it, this being that they wanted to become stronger swimmers. These children worked on all of their strokes tirelessly with Coach Khannie, with loads of drills and laps. “[My favorite part is] probably backstroke because it is making me a really strong swimmer,” said Gus Roller ’31.
Of course, there were many likes and dislikes throughout the course when it came to swimming, but of course, the true fan favorite was Free Time. The diving boards were open for business.
No matter their abilities, every child was given a chance to be confident in their abilities in the water, and they left the last day feeling proud of themselves and what they had accomplished. These kids came back to the Middle School proving that Rams Can Swim.