Teaching essential life skills

[jaap]

Here's how I do my shoelaces. I've never been able to tie them the traditional way, and always used to do the bunny ears method before this.

[Lydia Gwilt]

No worries. As you might gather, shoelaces have become a bit of a sore point for me (as well as a useful lesson that what comes easily to one person may be next to impossible for another). Scottish schools of the 60s sound even less fun than English ones!

If you have long lengths of dangly shoelace left over after tying they will tend to become undone again whilst walking. Tuck ends of dangly leftover bits under the cross lacing lower down shoe and things are less likely to become undone, hth

Trouser length also matters,

Trouser length - -you're joking! in 1960s schools girls wore skirts above the knee and boys under 11/12 wore shorts whatever the weather, woolly tights for girls were acceptable if there was heavy snow. My Mother couldn't actually buy long trousers for my little brother - didn't exist for that age -, so he wore woolly tights under his shorts, poor little beast!

[Allo V Psycho]

If you have long lengths of dangly shoelace left over after tying they will tend to become undone again whilst walking. Tuck ends of dangly leftover bits under the cross lacing lower down shoe and things are less likely to become undone, hth

Trouser length also matters,

Trouser length - -you're joking! in 1960s schools girls wore skirts above the knee and boys under 11/12 wore shorts whatever the weather, woolly tights for girls were acceptable if there was heavy snow. My Mother couldn't actually buy long trousers for my little brother - didn't exist for that age -, so he wore woolly tights under his shorts, poor little beast!

Wooly tights! She was being kinder than my mum (also Scottish '60s). My short trousers were made of such rough material that in winter they created red weals across my thighs where the edges were chafing them. And she made me wear those short trousers all through my first year at secondary, when all the other boys had long trousers.
I blame her for all my social and relationship difficulties ever since...

[Martin_B]

Here's how I do my shoelaces. I've never been able to tie them the traditional way, and always used to do the bunny ears method before this.

I've always tied my shoes the jaap way (or a very close approximation). It's the way I was taught by my mum, and I've never realised that any other shoe tying method was available. I've never done 'the traditional way' or 'the bunny ears' way. I'm not sure I'd be able to change the way I tie my shoes now even if I wanted to.

[Grumble]

Trouser length also matters,

Trouser length - -you're joking! in 1960s schools girls wore skirts above the knee and boys under 11/12 wore shorts whatever the weather, woolly tights for girls were acceptable if there was heavy snow. My Mother couldn't actually buy long trousers for my little brother - didn't exist for that age -, so he wore woolly tights under his shorts, poor little beast!

Wooly tights! She was being kinder than my mum (also Scottish '60s). My short trousers were made of such rough material that in winter they created red weals across my thighs where the edges were chafing them. And she made me wear those short trousers all through my first year at secondary, when all the other boys had long trousers.
I blame her for all my social and relationship difficulties ever since...

Until the age of two my grandpa was dressed as a girl to keep him safe from fairy abduction. Obviously girls were of no interest to fairies.

[lpm]

I'm enjoying the sudden swing from "in the olden days parents would teach kids all this stuff" to "in the olden days parents would send us to school with stinging nettles down our tights to keep us warm".

[shpalman]

I remember when I had to watch the Four Yorkshiremen sketch on VHS, and remember the lines in it.

[plodder]

The olden days were sh.t. Modern life is sh.t. People are idiots.

[Little waster]

I remember when I had to watch the Four Yorkshiremen sketch on VHS, and remember the lines in it.

Luxury, we used to dream about about watching the the Four Yorkshiremen sketch on VHS, we had to weave it into a tapestry on t'loom etc. etc.

[nezumi]

I remember when I had to watch the Four Yorkshiremen sketch on VHS, and remember the lines in it.

Luxury, we used to dream about about watching the the Four Yorkshiremen sketch on VHS, we had to weave it into a tapestry on t'loom etc. etc.

Tapestry?! TAPESTRY! We could only DREAM of tapestry, we had to gouge it into our own skin with sewing pins!

[shpalman]

I had to make it out of quark-gluon plasma since it was so early after the Big Bang that protons and neutrons hadn't even formed.

[Opti]

I had to wear shorts ... and a f.cking cap ... to school till I was 14. Paedo magnet. I got my share of attention going from Staines to Hammersmith every day.
Dunno if that was an essential life skill.

[Stephanie]

It’s a matter of supreme indifference to me how others tie their laces, but I changed how I tie mine after encountering this site: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/knots.htm

Which I think I got to from the old place.

f.cking hell, one more thing to think about.

right??

[JQH]

I had to wear shorts ... and a f.cking cap ... to school till I was 14. Paedo magnet. I got my share of attention going from Staines to Hammersmith every day.
Dunno if that was an essential life skill.

We had a cap as part of our school uniform, though I think it must have been optional as nobody wore it.

[Stephanie]

It’s a matter of supreme indifference to me how others tie their laces, but I changed how I tie mine after encountering this site: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/knots.htm

Which I think I got to from the old place.

f.cking hell, one more thing to think about.

I have a friend who has mocked me for over 25 years about how uncool my lace tying is. It doesn’t come up often, probably only 3 or 4 times in all that time, but I’m always mystified about what a cool knot is and how one finds this information out. I imagine he spends time watching rap videos looking at their shoes. I’ve never responded to him about it, and it’s always offhand not mean, but it’s amazing how things like that can play on your mind. Not enough for me to examine rappers’ footwear, but still.

think I'd probably be like "are you for real, you f.cking dork?"

I tried to type something longer about "cool" lace tying, but couldn't actually stop laughing. lmao, what a dork.

[Opti]

Ours was strictly enforced. On the street, Ravenscourt Park station and Richmond station were the favoured checkpoints.
At 14 we were allowed longs, no cap and a different tie.

[jimbob]

It’s a matter of supreme indifference to me how others tie their laces, but I changed how I tie mine after encountering this site: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/knots.htm

Which I think I got to from the old place.

Yes, since university I've used a version of a surgeon's knot to tie the shoelaces.

If you imagine the loops to be just the ends of the laces, then you want a reef knot and not a granny knot. It lasts quite a bit better.

[Herainestold]

A modern essential skill is how to organize a short squeeze on reddit.

[nezumi]

In my first year of secondary school, in 1994, the deputy head made all the girls kneel on the concrete floor to make sure our skirts were long enough. Up until then I thought that was a myth peddled by my mum and her sisters to scare us.

[bjn]

In my first year of secondary school, in 1994, the deputy head made all the girls kneel on the concrete floor to make sure our skirts were long enough. Up until then I thought that was a myth peddled by my mum and her sisters to scare us.

My youngest avoids all that nonsense by wearing trousers instead of skirts.

[nezumi]

In my first year of secondary school, in 1994, the deputy head made all the girls kneel on the concrete floor to make sure our skirts were long enough. Up until then I thought that was a myth peddled by my mum and her sisters to scare us.

My youngest avoids all that nonsense by wearing trousers instead of skirts.

We still weren't allowed at that point. I went to a different school in 2nd year and they let us wear trousers, it was a revelation and at that time I swore never to wear a skirt again. I have broken that oath since, but only rarely. I contend that skirts are an evil device invented by satan to give us cold legs and chapped thighs.

[Boustrophedon]

If I were in charge of education I'd make this a core subject, English, Maths, Science and Life Essentials.

Life Essentials would include basic sewing, repairing household textiles and furniture, basic vehicle maintenance, effective cleaning, how to pay a bill, password management, personal care... All those things it used to be accepted that parents would teach kids but apparently don't anymore.

Absolutely! also changing a lightbulb and changing a plug, hanging wallpaper, and reading a map/use of compass.

Do children get sent to school these days not knowing how to tie shoelaces? if so, that should be lesson number 2 on the first day, straight after where the loos are and how to ask permission to visit them.

I have spent a fair proportion of my working life teaching exactly these things.
Perhaps they are no more essential than all the other skills taught in school that may lead to gainful employment, but by and large they are not taught at all and I feel it always wise to open kids' eyes to other things that they might like to teach themselves properly if they need them.

[Opti]

I have spent a fair proportion of my working life teaching exactly these things.
Perhaps they are no more essential than all the other skills taught in school that may lead to gainful employment, but by and large they are not taught at all and I feel it always wise to open kids' eyes to other things that they might like to teach themselves properly if they need them.

For all the privileged education I had, I still had to go to the library to find out how to hang wallpaper ... and paint sliding sash windows.
They never thought that any of us would end up hanging nearly a whole roll of wallpaper drop in a stairwell (expensive Regency stripe) for a living one day.
At least back then there were libraries. And day one of big school was devoted to the correct use of libraries and the Dewey Decimal system.
Gaping hole there in value for money for the local taxpayers.

[lpm]

Can I just check, is this the 2021 timeline? The 2021 where lightbulbs rarely need changing, plugs cannot be changed, nobody hangs wallpaper any more and maps are supplied by google? The 2021 where if anyone wants to learn to wallpaper, there are loads of YouTubes? Did you also teach them how to write cheques, use the yellow pages, get photos developed, set video recorders and use a dictionary?

[Opti]

OK, I'm an old fart and don't know the answer to this, but ... how much time is devoted, in 2021, to teaching kids optimal search techniques?
My library training in how to look for things, and think critically, has been enormously helpful over the decades.