Taking the plunge.

There are a number of ways to enter a swimming pool. First there is the pre-pool shower. Do you do the whole-body shower, braving that cold water before the chill of the pool itself? Or do you do a sort of cursory, I'll-just-rinse-my-feet-a-bit shower? Or, like some, do you ignore the shower altogether? I recently watched a teenager being berated by a stern father (not his own) for jumping into the pool without showering. "Así que no sabes para que sirve la ducha," the man said. (So you don't know what the shower is for.) The teenager just gave him a surly look and carried on. This father was equally strict with his extremely well-behaved daughter. I decided her name must be "No chilles" because that is what he said to her whenever her voice went above a murmur. "Chillar" really means "to squeal" but he used "no chilles" to mean "don't shout". I began to feel quite sorry for the child. 

Okay, after the shower, getting into the water itself. Some do a dive-in from the deep end or a leap from the side. Most of us enter via the steps. Then some immediately do a kind of standing dive: a bit of a leap and a plunge and under the water they go. Proficient swimmers these, as are the divers from the deep end and leapers from the side. Others of us walk forwards into the water, letting the water make its way up our bodies. Then we stand there and do a sort of arm movement on the top of the water, a little like the arm movement of the breast stroke or even just kind of waving our arms over the surface. Then gradually, eventually, we set off and swim. Some, of course, never swim. They just enter the pool and stand in the shallow end, occasionally splashing themselves. And another group don't even get that far. They just sit on the side, near the steps, feet in the water, for all the world as if they have every intention of going in for a swim but in reality doing nothing of the kind. They just want to cool their feet down. 

Such is life at the poolside. It certainly beats working for a living? 

On the subject of work, I read something the other day by a journalist called Rebecca Nicholson. Her headline was, "Dear teenagers, you'll learn more from a Saturday job than from extra homework". Well, surely that depends on the Saturday job. Despite her belief in the benefits of having a part time job she went on to talk about her bad experience of working in a shoe shop as a Saturday job. I can sympathise. I did that as a teenager. She made £2.12 an hour. I made just under double that for the week when I did it full time in my summer holidays. But I suppose the value of money has changed. I remember one summer blowing my first week's wages on the Beatles' "Sergeant Pepper" LP. 

That last detail is totally irrelevant; I was just indulging in a little nostalgia. 

The main thrust of Ms. Nicholson's article was that sixth formers are no longer holding down Saturday jobs and she feels that they are missing out on useful experience. Apparently 42% of 16 - 17 year olds had part time jobs in 1996 compared with only 18% nowadays. This is being attributed to young people preferring to study. The journalist feels that they could learn more useful stuff by getting some work experience. 

Now, I spent many years persuading students in sixth form that they should not work too many hours as this could reduce their grades. We had statistical evidence to prove it. The problem was that in reality they weren't Saturday jobs. Employers asked for students' timetables and expected them to work odd hours around that, as many hours as possible, with the threat of losing the job if they failed to comply. And, really, I am not sure how much you actually learn from working in a fast food restaurant. 

But the question of 16 - 17 years olds working is an difficult one. I suspect that it is not really that they have all discovered an amazing work ethic as regards their studies. I know of quite a large number of young people, ex-teenagers and ex-sixth formers, who maintained their part-time jobs throughout their university study days and then, in many cases, kept them on because they couldn't find a "proper job" to match their qualifications. The jobs for six formers simple are not there. They are being done by older, although still young, people. 

 I think I am going back to the pool!