I’m reading a wonderful little book, Virginia Hunt Newman’s Teaching an Infant to Swim. Published back in 1967, it’s a bit anachronistic. I came across the following explanation which implicitly makes the analogy: girls are to boys as monkeys are to humans:“Baby girls usually learn more rapidly than boys of the same age because they are more advanced in co-ordination and balance. Although the boys don’t learn as rapidly as the girls, they will be better than the girls later on.

“… a two-year-old monkey has a reasoning ability far beyond that of a human being of the same age. … Later on, the monkey’s intelligence levels off, whereas the child’s continues to grow. When each has reached adulthood, the man has far surpassed the monkey in brain power. The same contrast is true in the physical development of boys and girls. The baby girl is more advanced than the boy. In adulthuood most men are stronger and have better co-ordination and balance than women.”

I have a feeling she would not dare write this in today’s politically-correct age! Nor would she say that boys will be “better” than girls at swimming.

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