Kat�s in the top group in her gym class this month. It�s never happened before but it may happen once next year too. Kat doesn�t run very well, Kat doesn�t know much about how balls bounce, and Kat doesn�t balance well either, but Kat can swim. We insisted she learn how to swim. She�ll never be on the swim team and her crawl has a strange moment of hesitation to it right at the top but she knows all the strokes and she can swim the length of the high school pool at least eight times�and that puts her in the top group.

Kat hated the water and hated swim lessons. She was a Level One swimmer for almost three years. She finally became motivated and learned to float when it became obvious that Day-Hay would pass her up if she didn�t do something. She continued through to Level Five of the Red Cross classes and quit because we had told her she could at that point. She moved up each time just as Day-Hay was about to pass her. Occasionally (very occasionally), sibling rivalry is a wonderful thing.

Now she�s sitting pretty, watching the poor kids who never learned to swim suffer the ignominy of wearing a blue flotation device and flailing around in the shallow end of the pool. (Actually, the shallow end of that pool is not particularly shallow. Day-Hay was the youngest swimmer in the Level One class because she had been in the parent-tot class, was really floating, and was very impatient with her short mother�s inability to go out of a very narrow area. The instructor decided she should go with the flow, so to speak.) Kat�s watching the intermediate group try to figure out strokes other than the crawl. She won�t admit it but she�s enjoying feeling competent.

She still hasn�t thanked us for all the years we tortured her year-round, making her take swimming lessons. Mr. Philately was a lifeguard in his youth and he firmly believes that every child needs to know how to swim. In any event, Jews are told that one of their obligations is to teach their children to swim and we took that obligation seriously. Although Kat�s self-esteem took a beating in swim classes (as it did in any class that required physical competence), it has paid off. Her self-esteem rose right back up when she realized that she really could do it. There�s a lesson in there somewhere for those who want to build the self-esteem of children.

So, today, who cares if Kat has gone to remedial gym? Today she�s in the top group and she�ll manage to stay there all month. Oh, yes, and she made the honor roll for first quarter too but that�s less of a surprise.

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