If you are anything like me, you may never have heard of the term "self-agency," at least not in the context of teaching swimming. I have my spouse, my daughter, and one of my grandsons to thank for helping me to understand the concept of self- agency and to place it into the context of what I have come to believe about how we should be teaching swimming (or as I prefer to phrase it, "facilitating someone learning how to swim"). I realize this may sound a bit like some kind of "New Age" craziness but bear with me as I try to explain. Over the past year as I have spent more time with my grandson during his third year of life (the so-called "terrible twos!"), my daughter corrected me on several occasions during my playful interactions with my grandson. The correction usually occurred when "Grandpa" was being impatient and trying to get (a.k.a., coerce) my grandson to do something I wanted him to do. These were not instances involving my grandson's or anyone else's health or safety. It may have been over the choice of which book to read or ending a session of our pseudo-roughhouse play in which he and I often engage. My daughter and son-in-law have worked diligently with their son helping him understand that in many cases, he has the right to say 'No!' Yes, I know how that may sound to traditionalists: "What? Are you nuts? Letting a two-year-old kid say 'No?' You are just letting the kid get away with anything! He will be unruly, undisciplined, and selfish." One of the problems identified with our current society is that too many people feel powerless to say 'no,' beginning perhaps when they were children. An extreme example comes from the horrifying instances of pedophilia when an adult took advantage of a child's powerlessness and fear of say 'no.' The confidence and sense of self to make and control one's own choices and actions (again, not in cases of health and safety, of course) is the essence of 'self-agency.' In fact, the self- agency to say 'no' is in and of itself not at all selfish, but a sign of one's own personal discipline.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1932-9997 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.25035/ijare.11.03.01 ID - ref1 ER -