There are certain actions we perform on most days that we barely even think about at all. One of them is tying your shoelaces. It's one of those necessary functions that I just seem to accomplish without any memory of doing it.
Due to the state of children's shoes today, that activity isn't necessary for many years. Along with characters like Thomas the Tank Engine, kids shoes come with hook and loop closures. As of the day before yesterday, my six-year-old still did not know how to tie his own shoes. We decided to get him to do it for himself.
As I sat with him practicing on an old boot of mine, I began to realize what a complicated activity this must seem to a child. I decided to try to teach both boys at once. My poor four-year-old seemed to be completely befuddled. We ran through it at least a dozen times before he seemed to start getting a wee bit closer. At the end of the session, we were closer and had made significant progress.
I noticed that even the action of trying to explain how you loop one lace around the other and insert it through the hole you just created can create spatial challenges. It made me wonder how often I have tried to explain what (to my mind) are simple actions to fellow co-workers without realizing that they had never done these activities before and had no frame of reference from which to draw comparisons. I might inadvertently be putting enormous pressure on them to keep up. They might not tell me that they didn't quite understand what I was saying for fear of embarrassment.
It takes a bit of imagination to walk in someone else's shoes.
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