Article August 31, 1974 Issue

Brian's Big Dive

Nancy J. Rourke

Brian had been taking swimming lessons for three summers. When he had first gone to his swimming class, he had cried when his face went into the water. But that was a long time ago. He was six years old now, and he swam almost every day with his friends. He liked to swim under the water and get things from the bottom of the pool. He and his friend Peter loved to walk along the diving board pretending that they were taking a walk in their good clothes. They would shriek and laugh as they stepped off the end of the diving board and plunged feet first into the water.

One day when Brian went to his swimming lesson, he heard the teacher say, "Line up at the diving board." Suddenly Brian felt very scared inside. Brian placed himself at the end of the line and let the other children get ahead so that he wouldn't have to take a turn. But that trick didn't work. The teacher saw Brian and asked him to dive headfirst. He didn't like it a bit. After that Brian decided never to dive again. Riding home from swimming lesson, Brian felt miserable, and he thought his teachers were mean.

At Brian's next swimming lesson things got worse. When the teacher asked the children to line up at the diving board, Brian sneaked over to a bench and sat very still. He hoped no one would notice him. But he was soon discovered. His teacher knew it wasn't good for him to give in to fear. She took Brian to the board. He screamed, "Get your hands off me!" That didn't help him. Brian had four turns and was more than ever determined never to dive again.

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