Education Revolution: Melon Dash Of Miracle Swimming School for Adults On Innovative Approaches That Are Transforming Education
An interview with Eden Gold
Love yourself first, listen to your body, and keep life fun.
The landscape of education is undergoing a profound transformation, propelled by technological advancements, pedagogical innovations, and a deepened understanding of learning diversities. Traditional classrooms are evolving, and new modes of teaching and learning are emerging to better prepare students for the complexities of the modern world. This series will take a look at the groundbreaking work being done across the globe to redefine education. As a part of this interview series, we had the pleasure to interview Melon Dash.
Melon Dash, faced with the conundrum of making terrified people comfortable in very little time, conceived a new model of learning in 1983. It was the answer to healing fear. Twenty-seven years as a competitive swimmer plus the influence of her parents — an irrepressible nurse/giver and a dyed-in-the-wool physicist inventor — were all the preparation she needed. The masters degree at the University of Michigan School of Education and 40+ years of owning a swim school solely for afraid adults brought her to today, fully armed to turn the ship of aquatics 180 degrees.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share the “backstory” behind what brought you to this particular career path?
As a graduate teaching assistant in charge of undergraduate Beginning Swimming courses, I saw adults struggling to learn to swim. As a competitive swimmer, I wondered why. Every semester, ten of twenty students couldn’t succeed because they were too afraid to let go of the wall or the bottom. They couldn’t put their faces in. They needed something that came before Beginning Swimming. There was no such thing.
Five years later, far away from teaching, I asked myself, what is the purpose of my life? The system that explained why people were stuck to the sides and the bottom appeared. It was new. It works every time. I’ve licensed 65 instructors around the world in the system since then.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
In 1983, I took a class on intuition in Berkeley. The conversation made me wonder, how does fear work? Over the next week when I was sitting in my recliner daydreaming, a diagram appeared to me twice. It was clearly the answer to my question.
It was a series of 5 circles with a stick figure in each one. I drew them and the words that came with them. They were simple, clear, and obvious.
I had just started my swimming school for afraid-in-water adults. The following day, I took the drawing to my class and explained the trajectory from calm to panic. The students said, “Why didn’t anyone tell us this before?” The best part is that this system, which is radically different from what the learn-to-swim industry uses, has proven itself to be virtually 100% successful over hundreds of thousands of lessons. It is the answer to what afraid students need to learn before they can learn skills. Pick any topic.
In a recent TV interview, the host reviewed the diagram and made my point for me: “You want a paradigm shift in teaching swimming.” Yes. Actually, a paradigm shift in all teaching.
The stick figure is the body. The circle (oval) is presence of mind. The goal is to stay in the 1st Circle (leftmost).
This is the 5 Circles, the Spectrum of Presence.
What was the lesson you learned from this story?
“Trust your intuition. No matter what people tell you, including “authorities,” follow your gut.”
Additionally, the circles diagram taught me that any fear can be healed without feeling afraid. Imagine it. This whole interview could be focused on the implications of that.
Can you briefly share with our readers why you are an authority in the education field?
I am recognized as an authority in my educational field, which is adult swimming instruction. I am not considered an authority in Education. I want my work to be used in Education, but Education hasn’t seen it. If Education embraced my work, I believe many more people would learn.
Graduates and instructors of this system agree that it is the bedrock of learning and that it should be taught as Ground Zero in any teacher education program. It has vast implications in Education and beyond — all teaching and learning.
I am an authority in my field because:
- I “created” the system
- The system cannot fail
- It led to a definition of “learn to swim” that leads to deep water safety and comfort
- No other swim school we know of globally has similar success
- Student feedback is over the top
- People have come from 50 states and 18 countries to take my courses. No one else can make that claim.
- Instructors ask to learn the system. They have become as successful as I am.
- Readers of my book have requested the course around the world
Can you identify some areas of the US education system that are going really great?
No. Not because there are none, but because I’m not in the field of Education you’re referring to.
However, this is going great: At the University of Michigan, one of my graduates, a professor of information technology/computer science now teaches my system to his grad students to apply to their studies. They have responded with increased productivity and statements that the 5 Circles system has augmented other areas of their lives.
Another of my graduates, an EdD whose work supports school districts, takes schools through a transformation where students of all ages learn to bring themselves back to the 1st circle to complete a task.
Can you identify the key areas of the US education system that should be prioritized for improvement?
From my perch as someone who teaches afraid people to be confident, I see two areas: students and teachers!
- Students and teachers must learn that being connected to one’s feelings is a key to success.
- Teachers must prioritize the importance of feeling, especially feeling safe.
We need a new understanding that feelings matter. We teach as though the mind is superior to feelings which are to be swept under the rug. Not always true. The 5 Circles is basic knowledge every person should have.
For someone to be ready to absorb new knowledge, they must be present. To be present, they need to be comfortable. This requires a lack of distractions like competition, hunger, self-doubt, feeling threatened. Comfort must come first. If we skip that — which is Step 1 — we cannot achieve Step 2. No need to scratch our heads. Just clean up Step 1 and watch other problems evaporate.
The key to learning is presence of mind.
Can you explain why those are so critical?
They are critical because they are ground zero for learning and development.
When kids get to their swimming class — or any class — at school, are they ready to learn? Has the school system made students safe regarding the factors at play? For example: body image, attire, pushing, safety, fear, shame, self-consciousness. Are there two levels of instruction for those who are afraid and those who aren’t? The afraid ones won’t learn unless they feel safe. Is there a qualified instructor for each level who can guide each student to safety?
Students should have time to connect with how they feel and talk about their feelings. Trading a listening session with another student for two to five minutes is useful. It may be related to the impending class or not. Students learn to listen, and they practice connecting with themselves. They land in the 1st Circle. Or they come closer to the 1st Circle than they were. No action is taken. They learn that feelings matter. In the water, especially while swimming, it is feeling that informs us of what to do next. It is feeling that keeps us safe. It’s the same on land but on land we can fudge and ignore our feelings. We will pay the price later.
What is school for, if not to prepare students for a successful life? They need to know whether to say yes or no. These answers are given by the body via feelings. We need to learn how to distinguish between intuition (gut feelings) and fear. This should be learned in school. K-12. It facilitates self-confidence and optimal learning in any subject. Not that the mind has no role. It’s the conductor.
Connecting with oneself should be prioritized before intellectual learning. Swimming, sports, music and art — body-centered activities — require us to connect with our bodies and learn how to make them do what we want them to. Let’s make these activities a priority until kids and adults master presence and confidence. Connectedness between mind and body facilitates staying true to oneself, self-expression, telling the truth, following one’s intuition, healing misunderstandings, and appropriate social interaction. Isn’t this observable to the naked eye? Aren’t these skills the foundation of navigating the world successfully, and more important than facts? Facts are important, too, but they should be introduced after presence and confidence have been achieved. Presence (emotional, physical safety) and confidence (permission to be yourself and to ask your questions) set the stage for successful intellectual development.
Students need to be “in their bodies” to succeed in school and life. Knowing how to get there is a #1 goal.
Please tell us all about the innovative educational approaches that you are using. What is the specific problem that you aim to solve, and how have you addressed it?
The problem is the fear of water of half of the adults in the United States and the way fear is treated in traditional swimming lessons. Most afraid adults cannot become safe in deep water — and often in shallow water — in traditional swimming lessons. They are in the 3rd Circle or higher too often in lessons. This situation is an emergency for afraid adults. They don’t know where to go to become safe. The current approach for adult non-swimmers is molded from children’s programs. They don’t fit. Traditional agencies have evidently never asked why so many adults panic, fail, and quit lessons. Or why 80% of American drownings are by adults (CDC 2022). Students’ failure is blamed on lack of practice. But who wants to practice panic? Lack of practice is not the issue. The issue is the teaching system.
Afraid adults learning to swim with the 5 Circles is a magnificent demonstration of optimal learning, a model for all teaching.
Three problems accompany adults’ fear in water:
- Shame for being an afraid adult unable to swim.
- Self-doubt caused by repeated failure to learn due to misinformed teaching.
- Top learn-to-swim leaders who have (magnanimously) admitted they don’t have the definition of “learn to swim” and haven’t rectified it.
The 35,000 foot view is that in virtually all teaching/learning environments, not just swimming, presence of mind is presumed. Therefore, it goes unaddressed. The most important part of learning goes unaddressed. Why scratch our heads about how to improve?
Presence of mind cannot be presumed. It must be addressed at every step of teaching.
My solution is to:
- Gain students’ trust.
- Make learning easy by starting at the beginning and skipping no steps. Present The 5 Circles.
- Train instructors in what the steps are. Swimming instructors think they know the steps, but they consider only the physical steps. There are many non-physical steps between physical steps, and none can be skipped. Such is also the case with teaching baseball, organic chemistry and anything else.
- Establish and maintain a connection with each student. Stop at nothing to make them comfortable.
- Teach people how to stay in the 1st Circle all the time (where they are in control and safe).
- Appeal to the American Red Cross and the Y to compare results of their work and the 5 Circles System — Miracle Swimming.
- Demonstrate a teaching that works 100% of the time for instructors and agencies.
The trajectory of learning looks like this.
If you master the two diagrams, you can be virtually 100% successful as a teacher and a learner. Learn most quickly by staying in the 1st Circle.
The teacher’s main functions are to help students be in the 1st Circle (Calm) and teach them how to stay in the 1st Circle.
Example:
A class of afraid adults wants to become comfortable putting their faces in water. They can force themselves to put their faces in as they have in the past. But forcing oneself is the 3rd Circle. It’s managing fear instead of healing it. Students want to heal it.
They’ve heard me say that the goal is to be comfortable: the 1st Circle. The goal is NOT to put their faces in. I ask, “What are your concerns about putting your face in?” They say: Getting water in my nose, getting water in my eyes, getting it in my ears, running out of breath, losing my balance.” I tell them how to take care of all of those. I end with, “We really don’t care if you put your face in. The goal is to stay comfortable and in control. So, when you get very close to the surface (I demonstrate), stop and ask yourself, “Is this really what I want to do?” And if the little voice in you says, NO, then straighten back up. We are listening to that voice. We need to honor it. This rebuilds self-trust. We don’t care if you put your face in.”
I have to repeat this, since it’s so unexpected.
I’m helping them to stay in the 1st Circle. This is what they came to learn, unbeknownst to them. Soon, they’re in control for the first time in their lives with their faces in water. Within 15 minutes, they start experimenting. They open their eyes. They turn their heads to see what’s over there. Some take their hand off their nose. Some go all the way under water. Because they are in the 1st Circle, the next step has become available. They are teaching themselves.
Looking back on it later, they remark how easy it was, even after all these years of trying. They’re hopeful. These people resisted their faces in water, some for 60 years. Some haven’t put their faces in the shower. Understanding the 5 Circles made them willing to try again.
In what ways do you think your approach might shape the future of education?
It should change the bedrock of teacher education and the teaching progression. It will enable the process of education to proceed at an optimal rate. It makes heretofore impossible progress inevitable.
What evidence supports this?
The evidence is the virtual 100% success that I and my licensees have had for 42 years with 6,000 afraid-in-water adults. When you see it, you believe it. Then, you use it. It has been proven for 4 decades.
How do you measure the impact of your innovative educational practices on students’ learning and well-being?
- By the progress made in 5 days (or even 2 hours).
- By their joy and astonishment.
- By their stories of how our system has transformed other parts of their lives.
- By their stories of how they saved themselves in harrowing situations they would not otherwise have been able to navigate or survive.
What challenges have you faced in implementing your educational innovations, and how have you overcome them?
Challenge #1: Being dismissed:
- By the learn-to-swim industry for bringing presence of mind into the picture. The industry is uncomfortable with it.
- For being a woman.
- For being a “swimming teacher.”
- Swimming is seen as petty or unnecessary. It draws little respect because teenagers teach most of it.
- The point has been missed. It’s not about swimming. It’s about teaching and learning.
- For speaking counter to the powerful, yet mistaken organizations whose authority goes unquestioned.
- For being perceived as contrarian rather than having a valid point.
- For being perceived as giving opinion rather than evidence-based conclusions.
- Because traditional learn-to-swim purveyors see no benefit in teaching adults.
- For implying that feelings matter.
- By people who are uncomfortable dealing with fear; sometimes their own fear of deep water.
- Because people resist change, even if it’s proven to work better.
Challenge #2: Disbelief.
- Prospective Students: “This course sounds too good to be true.” “How can I overcome fear with a book?”
- Instructors don’t believe they need further training.
- Many instructors believe: “I can’t teach something so airy fairy.”
- Instructor authorities don’t believe that watching the system in action is worth their time. Some don’t take responsibility for their classes’ outcomes.
I have not overcome these challenges. Drivenness is my modus operandi. Only now — after 4 decades — am I beginning to get traction in aquatics…possibly because someone in Education has begun to listen.
The challenges have compelled me to publish counterpoints to the status quo. I have heretically exposed cherished misconceptions and errors. My goals are simply to end drowning and to bring forth a teaching system that never fails through the vehicle of learning to swim. Could there be any more perfect way to introduce such a system than the plight of adults who are afraid in water who want to learn to swim? This is not a coincidence.
I have asked the American Red Cross to halt teaching adult beginning lessons until its trainers and instructors have been trained. The implication is that they’ll be trained by me since no other training exists in the U.S. or elsewhere to my knowledge. In the meantime, I requested that they stop disseminating misinformation and correct their daily messaging. It is backward: learning strokes does not make afraid adults present or safe in deep water. Instead, presence of mind in deep water makes learning strokes possible in deep water.
I have created as many fixes as I can for afraid adults — 16 products, 2 with patents. I’ve taught people to overcome claustrophobia and fear of flying as well. My job now is to demonstrate the system and train instructors, trainers and agencies. Though learn-to-swim is my bailiwick, the first industry to benefit may not be aquatics.
Keeping in mind the “Law of Unintended Consequences” can you see any potential drawbacks of this innovation that people should think more deeply about?
No. I see only expansion, healing, and deeper understanding. I see new speed and ease of learning in every field. I see relief for those who have been unable to learn. Education can serve more students as the 5 Circles becomes more accessible. I see fewer drowning deaths and less mourning, fewer learning failures, ER visits, and insurance claims.
What are your “5 Things I Wish I Knew When I First Started”?
- Love yourself first, listen to your body, and keep life fun.
- You cannot do it alone. Hire help. Borrow money. Find a mentor. Do what you do best, let others to do the rest, and trust, even if you can’t figure out how it’s going to come together.
- If you’re not getting the response you want, either say it differently or choose another audience.
- If you’re a woman, it’s harder to be heard. Find the right words. Don’t change yourself: your passion is important to achieving your goal.
- I wish I’d known that many adults are still children in many ways. I have to speak to the wounded child in adults rather than speaking to the adult.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that was used to create them.” — Einstein
In every talk and article, I’ve tried to point out the problem and the system of thinking that created it. However, people seem to need another reason to change their views. It may involve money or looking good.
When I presented my case to the Scientific Advisory Sub-council of the American Red Cross they said, “We see there’s a need to make some alterations in adult lessons, and we can make them ourselves.” Won’t they use the same thinking that created the problems?
Drowning can virtually end when the Red Cross and the Y implement a system that for all intents and purposes guarantees learning for kids and adults: 5 Circles.
Globally, swimming instruction brass does not recognize the magnitude of their system’s error. The World Health Organization declared drowning an epidemic in 2014. Authorities don’t know what they don’t know.
Presence of mind is the key to learning. The 5 Circles is a solution to a massive problem.
We are blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Richard Branson: interested in teaching people to swim
Elizabeth Birr Moje, Dean of the University of Michigan School of Education, alma mater
Gregory J. Kelly, Dean of the College of Education, University of Massachusetts, alma mater
Mary Roach, author and Miracle Swimming graduate
Fred McGriff, Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Hall of Fame Star and Miracle Swimming graduate
Simone Manuel: Olympic swimmer
Katy Ledecky, Michael Phelps, Leon Marchand, Ariarne Titmus endorsements: Olympians to play the part they most enjoy playing to bring this system to their communities.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Presentation of the 5 Circles in class: https://vimeo.com/937487305/469ae617db
Miracleswimming.com, 5CirclesTeachingMethod.com, melondash.com, LinkedIn, Turning the Ship of Aquatics blog, Medium.com, IngramSpark.com: Conquer Your Fear of Water, A Revolutionary Way to Learn to Swim Without Ever Feeling Afraid.
Thank you so much for these insights! This was so inspiring!
Education Revolution: Melon Dash Of Miracle Swimming School for Adults On Innovative Approaches… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.