My Co-Worker Can't Tie A Loop.....Seriously?

[Sage Blackthorn]

Ok, this just happened at work, and I'm still incredulous about it. We were taking down the St. Patrick's Day displays and putting up Easter/Spring Equinox decorations. One of my co-workers, who's 28 years old mind you, comes up to me with three little hanging easter decorations. They are cut-outs of Easter Bunnies, Baby Chicks, and a Pile of Easter Eggs with some 1/8-inch ribbon. It looks like last year they were pinned to the acoustic tiles in the ceiling, because there are Pearl-headed straight pins on the ends of the ribbons. I tell her "We have hooks on the ceiling now, just take the pins out and tie a Loop in the end of the ribbons so we can hang them."........ And she gives me a blank look and says "How do you tie a Loop?" Dead-pan, straight-faced, and serious as a heart-attack folks. She's 28 and can't tie a Loop in a ribbon.

So I take one of the cut-outs and show her how to do a simple over-hand bight, aka A Loop. Then she tries to do it and can't tie it, and askes me to show her again. I'm sitting here going "Seriously? A 5-year-old can do this! It's a simpler knot than tieing your shoes!" So she finally manages to do the last one and says "I guess I'm 5-years-old" with a big grin.

I'm still incredulous, bordering on horrified here. Tieing simple knots is something I learned in KINDERGARTEN for crying out loud! This is right up there with the ex-employee who when asked to vaccume the carpets said "I never learned how to vaccume." Really? Seriously? You've GOT to be putting me on here!

Andj the really scarey part, is this 28-year-old is going to college to become a Teacher

[HYHYBT]

What sort of loop are you talking about? Because if you mean one where you can pull the knot tight so it will hold while still leaving slack, I have no idea how to do that and am not a bit ashamed to say so. It's only very rarely useful, and nobody ever saw any reason even to attempt to teach me.

There's a difference between being stupid and coming across something you've never had an occasion to learn... and that remains true even if you don't get it right away. (And if you feel up to it, I *would* very much like to know how you do it. Might someday come in handy.)

[muses_nightmare]

Uh it's not really that surprising. Hell I learned how to tie my shoes with the two loop method (whatever that's actually called, if there is a name for it) rather than the one loop and wrap around method, and I can't do the second one very well at all.

It doesn't mean someone is stupid because they can't do something like that, just that they never had to learn to do it. I'm sure there are plenty of things other people think "a 5 year old" should know, that you may not have learned.

[Teysa]

I learned how to tie my shoes using the two loop method too. I had really lousy manual dexterity as a kid and never could get the hang of tying them the other way.

As far as the co-worker goes, maybe she just lacks dexterity as well. That doesn't mean she'll make a bad teacher.

[Ginger Tea]

I've never learned how to tie a tie, I asked my dad to teach me as if it came undone at school I would be stuffed, all he did was just tie it on himself and give it back to me and hope for the best.
So when I dressed up for an abysmal school disco night (long boring story) last year I had to get the guy upstairs to tie mine, I'm 36 and as noone (ie dad) really showed me how to tie a tie (not even the school for those its come loose times) for those shirt and tie intervies I had I always had him tie them for me (well once and it just stayed on a coat hanger for the next interview) and as I don't do shirt and tie for work its something I don't ever envision ever having to learn to do. Although I do have a book with 100 tie knots should I ever have to.

[Boozy]

The ONLY knot I can make is the one we use to tie our shoes. I have no idea what an "overhand bight" is.

I've gotten through life just fine. I quite honestly cannot recall a time in which my inferior knowledge of knots has caused me difficulty.

I'd curb your horror, as I will guarantee you that your co-worker knows a few "basic" things that you don't, and would be shocked to realize it.

[Greenday]

I've never learned how to tie a tie, I asked my dad to teach me as if it came undone at school I would be stuffed, all he did was just tie it on himself and give it back to me and hope for the best.
So when I dressed up for an abysmal school disco night (long boring story) last year I had to get the guy upstairs to tie mine, I'm 36 and as noone (ie dad) really showed me how to tie a tie (not even the school for those its come loose times) for those shirt and tie intervies I had I always had him tie them for me (well once and it just stayed on a coat hanger for the next interview) and as I don't do shirt and tie for work its something I don't ever envision ever having to learn to do. Although I do have a book with 100 tie knots should I ever have to.

Youtube has some good videos for that.

My biochem teacher/head of department was the one who taught me how to tie a tie.

[telecom_goddess]

Well I don't know about the knots...or what the "two loop" method of tying shoes is....I just do the standard method, but I do want to say that someone who never learned how to vacuum is pretty freakin' sad. It's not hard...turn on vacuum and push, then pull, hit all areas of carpet.

[Rageaholic]

I confess, I cannot tie my shoes. It's something I've tried to learn many many times, but I just can't do it properly.

Unless a specific assignment would require learning how to tie a knot, I don't see how this is a big deal.

[JustaCashier]

I'm 52 years old and can't tie a knot worth a damn either. I double tie my shoes, otherwise they're sure to come untied.

I don't know if there is a clinical "dyslexia" related to this, or perhaps it's related somehow to reading dyslexia, but it's like when somebody is showing me how to tie a knot, or some similar procedure, I think I understand what they're saying/showing, but end up usually doing about the opposite.

Hell, back in third grade, I received a rap on the knuckles from a ruler wielded by my mean, old battle ax of a Teacher, (complete with the arm flab that wiggled violently as she wrote on the chalkboard) because I was doing a project wrong.

We each were given a manila folder to hold our classwork. We had punched holes along one open edge, and were to weave a string of yarn through the holes, in order to keep the folder from opening up, and our work from falling out.

She had demonstrated exactly how to weave the yarn through, but I was doing it backwards. She noticed, and I got a little rap on the knuckles, and a scolding.

I don't recall if she specifically called me stupid, or something similar, but man, she sure made me feel stupid!


Mike

[guywithashovel]

I'm having a hard time envisioning what is meant by this "loop." But sometimes people just don't learn basic things because they've never had a reason or an opportunity to learn them.

I can tie a tie pretty well, but that's because I wear one to work every day except for Friday. However, I've never learned how to drive a stick shift. Sometimes I feel ashamed because of that. Heck, every time I see one of those lists of "Things Ever Man Should Know How to Do" driving a stick shift is on it. But by the time I reached driving age, all the family cars were automatics, so I never really had an opportunity to learn. We had a 1982 Blazer that was a stick, but Dad sold that shortly before I turned 16. Honestly, I'd like to learn, just so I'll know, but there probably isn't much of a reason for me to learn.

[Ginger Tea]

However, I've never learned how to drive a stick shift. Sometimes I feel ashamed because of that. Heck, every time I see one of those lists of "Things Ever Man Should Know How to Do" driving a stick shift is on it.

Well I'm out for both counts of stick and manual as I've never been in the driving seat and don't envision needing to drive to work unless I move to far away to cycle or change jobs.

[Sage Blackthorn]

Ok, This is an "Overhand Bight Knot" a.k.a., a simple loop in a rope



For those of you who've never learned how to tie this simple knot, here are the instructions.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2262159_tie-...not-bight.html

This is simply a variation of the common overhand knot:



Ya' may not recognize the terms, hell I didn't know an overhand knot anything other than "A Knot", or that an overhand bight was anything other than "A Loop" for half my life.... but I could tie them and I use them all the time.

I have trouble imagining someone growing up and never having been taught such simple things....things that were part of the tests I had to do for Kindergarten in 1979 in Colorado for determining manual dexterity as required by The School Board.

The idea that someone could go through their entire life never having learned or having the need to learn how to tie a knot and a loop in a bit of string just leaves me aghast. I think it's more likely that my co-worker was being a smart-ass....... much like the ex-employee who when told to vacuum the carpets said "I never learned how to vacuum."..... Later we asked her mother about it, and her mother said "Oh really? She's pullin' your leg, she vacuums at home all the time." Yeah, that's what we thought, she just didn't want to do the work she was assigned.

For as much time as my co-worker spends surfing the internet, texting, and updating her Facebook status on her cell-phone during work hours, she should've been able to look up "How To Tie A Loop" on Google.

And for the record, growing up my father taught me how to tie a Full Windsor and Half Windsor knot for my tie for formal occassions. And even if he hadn't done so, Google to the rescue again: How To Tie A Windsor Knot. Dad also showed me how to tie my shoelaces in a bow, and how to double-knot them so they wouldn't come loose.

My co-worker has no physical disorders that would prevent her from tieing these knots. We require our employees to make us aware of any such conditions when they are hired in order that we may comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (the A.D.A.). She is in college, and though she's failed her CBEST certifications for teaching in California 3 times I don't really think she's "stupid"....... I think she's just being a smart-ass because like the ex-employee I mentioned who said she couldn't vacuum, I think my co-worker just didn't want to do the task assigned to her and came up with a lame excuse to try and get out of it.

But even if she is truely incompetant about tieing knots, have no fear, she spent half an hour today looking for an App' for her iPhone that shows her how to tie 96 different knots.....along with texting her sister, surfing the internet, and updating her Facebook Status all while she was on the clock and suppose to be working.

[telecom_goddess]

Well I'm out for both counts of stick and manual as I've never been in the driving seat and don't envision needing to drive to work unless I move to far away to cycle or change jobs.

I"m with you there.....don't drive, never gonna.

Thanks for the knot instruction...the simple knot is easy yeah the other one I'd have to study ....

[muses_nightmare]

Well I don't know about the knots...or what the "two loop" method of tying shoes is....I just do the standard method, but I do want to say that someone who never learned how to vacuum is pretty freakin' sad. It's not hard...turn on vacuum and push, then pull, hit all areas of carpet.

http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/twoloopknot.htm

This is what I mean by the two loop method, I can't do the standard one very well at all it always ends up coming untied. *shrugs* I think when I was learning I learned that one and didn't see why I needed to know another so the other one never stuck.