A couple days ago, right before it was time to leave for school, my son showed me the big hole in the side of his only pair of sneakers. I sent him off to school like that and then made an emergency run to buy some new shoes.

As I scanned the athletic shoe selection for boys I began to wonder: do kids today learn how to tie their shoes? Do they even need to? With the overwhelming selection of velcro sneakers available, why learn to tie? Then I wondered: does my own 1st grader know how to tie shoe laces?

My son has had velcro shoes for a long time (with a pair or two of tie shoes thrown in over the years). They are so convenient. He can throw them on in a hurry, requiring no adult assistance, and out the door we go. How great is that?!

Wondering if I had somehow neglected my son's basic life education, I bought one pair of velcro shoes and one pair of lace-up shoes to see what would happen. It turns out that my son was very excited about the tie shoes, although he had completely forgotten how to tie. (I'm pretty sure I had taught him once.)

So now he enjoys practicing tying his shoes. And we decided to keep both pairs of sneakers “just in case.” It's always good to have a back-up plan anyway.