PREFACE

Too Ready to Date?

Frequently girls are ready for dates long before others of their age and grade are. These are the girls who grow up fast, and before they’re out of grade school are taller or more physically mature than others in their class. They become interested in boys at a time when fellows their own age are not even aware that girls exist, in a special personal sense.

Because the early developing girl is tall for her age, it is hard for her to find a boy taller than she is and still within the range of those considered datable by her family. Parents often object to a girl’s dating older boys, for they know that although she looks grown-up, she actually is too inexperienced to handle the complicated situations that might arise with an older fellow. Yet the boys of her own age are still “little guys” both literally and socially. So the early maturing girl is expected to “freeze” where she is until others of her age catch up with her.

The fact is that at junior high school age, girls are taller than the majority of boys. Lamentably, at dancing classes , group dates, or boy-girl parties, the tall girl who is big for her age is avoided by shorter fellows. So she, more ready to date than most, is more frequently delayed in the very social experiences, such as dancing lesions, that would ready her for dating when it finally does come. This problem is accentuated in our country because exaggerated emphasis is put on the importance of a boy being taller than a girl.