Swimming Mania?

Yesterday we had our second swim lesson at Teacher's College- a vast improvement over Barnard, where we had been going for a few years. M is practically Esther Williams. I was in awe watching her with the one other girl in her class (who looks like she is in the wrong level to me- way advanced) as she did the back stroke ( I cannot do that!), the breast stroke and the crawl back and forth, back and forth across the length of the pool. Never mind that she had never done many of these skills (when the instructor told her to dive in she just belly flopped with her arms in the dive position, emulating the other girl), M was a trooper. Mr. Happy Extra-curricular activities, a.k.a J. screamed in terror literally, every time his smiling instructor came to get him in the water. J looks petrified and traumatized. We are not sure why since he loved swimming all summer long. Maybe it is because his parents are not in the pool, maybe he is having swimmer's block, but surely he is having a bad time, which makes me feel guilty (F. seems more frustrated than I do) about the double weekend torture we have set up for him through the fall. It is hard to know how much to pull and push, what is natural resistance and what is forced parental desire. His instructor smiles and insists that J. will love swimming soon. I am not sure he knows who he is dealing with. My children are a rare breed of tenacious stubborn (hmm where does that come from?) and "no way" usually means just that. Let's not forget that J was the first kid in BT history to conscientiously object to and therefore not participate in graduation. He told me he would not do it (the performance involved dancing around to the Beatles, so nothing short of what he LOVES) and he made sure to do less and less every rehearsal until they deemed him unfit to perform. J just shot the audience dirty looks while his friends frolicked to the Beatles. On the upside, as soon as these torturous episodes are over J is ecstatic and seems unscathed. After swimming yesterday, J did a mini wave goodbye to his instructor (his aquatic nemesis) and almost smiled. There is a glimmer of hope that we will see some joy on his face on a weekend morning soon!