I mean, I can swim ... four to six lessons, she said, with a couple of practice sessions in between. Ideally, they should be weekly, so expect to be at the pool a fair bit for a month or two.

That statistic is cited in A Swim Lesson, the Oscar-shortlisted short documentary that follows Marsh in the pool as he instructs a new class of tots. For little kids, the 8-day-long process can be ...