Our dad taught my brother and me at a very early age. In England, almost every park seemed to have a lake with rowboats for rent -- and Dad made a beeline everywhere we went.
Years later, when Sail Expo was in Atlantic City and they had that big indoor pool for radio boats and the Expo Sailer, etc., I suggested they give rowing lessons to punters looking to buy sailboats. The "powers" looked at me as tho I'd just stepped off another planet.