If this is your first year as a teacher and you are over the moon about beginning in a junior primary classroom then you need to read this!

It's a discussion that no-one had with me in my pre-service days but boy did I learn fast about shoelaces and the yucky, icky truth! If you have food in your hands - please eat first and then read. Maybe wait a little bit and then read.


I trained for upper primary but spent the first few years of teaching with junior primary. I really enjoyed the age but admittedly this age group does have some habits that tend to gross you out. Today I am going to write about one.

Shoelaces!

As a mum, I am thankful my kids have Velcro on their shoes - so much easier at such a young age. As a kid, though I couldn't wait to get my first pair of "big girl shoes" - yes, they had laces. Now as a general rule, girls keep their shoelaces clean (unless they've been outside and the laces come undone and then they've walked through puddles and mud and sand...you get the idea) boys, however, are a different matter altogether.

Now it isn't all boys but most suffer from the same problem. You see it comes down to the toilet. If you've never been inside a girl vs boy bathroom/toilet since you were in school then I say you need to familiarise yourself on a Friday after school when the kids are all gone. You will notice a difference. The girls' bathroom will probably be a bit muddy on the floor, usually paper where it shouldn't be and bubbles in the trough. That's the worst I've ever seen. Now the boys' bathroom. You will know it before you get there because of the smell! If your school has a urinal that flushes regularly then it might help a bit but I've worked in schools where it only flushes a handful of times a day (and in an Aussie heatwave...you get the smell!) The floor will be a mixture of water, mud, and wee - and here is the difference between girls and boys.

Close your eyes and imagine kids coming up to you to say: "Can you tie my shoelaces?" *shudder*

So what? 
Well each time the boys go to the bathroom and their shoelaces are undone what do you think they are trailing in? Close your eyes and imagine kids coming up to you to say: "Can you tie my shoelaces?" *shudder*


It used to be that parents' would teach their children to tie their laces - Mum told me I could only have proper shoes when I could tie the laces myself (which is why I had to wait until grade 1 as it took ages for me to learn - and even then it was the rabbit ears that came to the rescue). Sadly it seems more and more kids are not being taught and it falls to the teacher to either teach it or spend half of every yard duty tying up shoelaces.