Not learning (or worse, not teaching your kids) to swim is one of the absolute stupidest things you could do

Swimming is like walking, but for water. It's part of the few basic means of movement we, humans, have at our disposal, along with running, crawling and climbing. Not knowing how to swim puts you at a HUGE disadvantage, many times it's not even about dangers - I couldn't count how many times in my life I was invited to something cool, that I then had to skip because there was swimming involved.<br><br>On the other hand, people can die because of your ignorance. When I was a kid, we went to a lake with some friends and one of them couldn't swim. He went into the water and suddenly got sucked into a whirlpool (I think that's what it's called, I'm Czech so please forgive me if I made a mistake) and wasn't able to get out. Luckily for him, a girl in our group was a skilled swimmer who went to save him. If she wasn't there, he would have drowned.<br><br>Therefore, I think that every single person on the planet should know how to swim, it's as basic as knowing how to walk or climb up a ladder. It's dangerous when you don't know how to swim and it's a completely useless phobia.<br><br>EDIT: Jesus this blew up. For those who are wondering, I didn't know that swimming wasn't as common in some parts of the world. It's absolutely normal here (the Czech Republic) to give every kid swimming lessons at school, it's a part of physical education if I translated it correctly.<br><br>For those that say that you need access to a swimming pool to learn: I get it, not everyone has the opportunity to learn. But saying that "I can't swim because I never had the chance to" doesn't change the fact that not knowing how to swim is, well, kinda dumb.