San Luis Obispo High School will be starting construction for Measure D in the summer of 2016. An outcome of this measure will be a pool next to the new gym. There was a swimming pool in the school, but it was replaced with track and field shot-put rings. The opportunities of this pool will be endless, but how will the students react?

Water polo, along with swim and dive, has been using the Sinsheimer pool for practices and meets. With this new pool, players wont have to commute after school. This will limit the use of our school vans as well as make it less stressful for unlicensed players to plan rides. Additionally, students will be more able to come out and support these teams due to it being at such convenience.

The other huge factor this will play in the school is the opportunity to have swimming as a part of the physical education program. All high schools with an accessible pool have this in their physical education courses. It can bring wonderful opportunities for the students. It could possibly be the only way a student will learn how to swim; is this a completely positive factor for the students?

The problem with this in our physical education is the sensitivity of students. Many students are fairly insecure with their bodies. With this considered, if swimming is a grade in the class, and a student is too embarrassed to wear a swimsuit, what are they going to do? If they are given a bad grade, is it really fair to punish someone for their insecurities? How would that help? However, if they are exempt, they will always be known as the person who was always too chicken to get in the water. Either way, these students will be poorly affected. It could even be taken further to say that due to these options, the student will be tempted to stop attending school or even ditch. Perhaps a system where swimming class was optional would be a good alternative. Then, students who would benefit could take it and those who wouldn’t are in no danger.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that a pool will be a wonderful addition to the school and its opportunities; but perhaps the school board should take a second look at feelings and emotions at San Luis Obispo High School before they add such a requirement to our curriculum. Loss of confidence should be nothing short of a concern to our board of education. After all, it’s the students who need to benefit from the school.