A father who didn't think it was right to teach his son how to swim?

Hearing that made me feel all the more sad for Charles and his own up-bringing. As a character, he sure is convincing as someone who wants, longs, and regrets!

http://generaladmission.podbean.com/2011/10/21/scene-51-review-somethi ng-wicked-this-way-comes/

Giddy-up, goat!

I hadn't seen this movie in a long time...then, yesterday evening, my brother was watching it, and I happened to hear that part. It never registered with me before, but this time when I heard it, it seemed really dumb. I said, "Didn't think it was right?" And dressed Charles's father down as an idiot. But I think you're right. I think his father may have been afraid of the water (I've known people who are petrified at ever setting foot in a natural body of water).

The Falcon flies

"Unless he too couldn't swim and was scared of the water and instead of admitting it, used that as his excuse to justify never teaching Charles how to swim either?"

Considering the fact that his son got swept up in the river and someone else had to go save him, I think it's safe to say that's EXACTLY what was going on.

No, I think his father had a Puritan streak in him, and figured that boys who could swim would go off and "waste time" playing in rivers and ponds and lakes, neglecting their studies or other more serious activity.

In those days (late 19th century) swimming wasn't seen as a survival skill (unless you lived on a coast) and pools were restricted to "sinful" cities or homes of the very rich. In a small, rural mid-America town, swimming would be a purely enjoyable recreation activity of no material benefit, and under Puritanism, that kind of frivolity would be a BAD THING (like dancing, think of Footloose).

Recall that his father was a minister.