Teaching a Young Man How to tie a Necktie

As a young man grows up, there are many things that he must learn.  Some are easy and some are hard.  The other day, we talked about how 14 year old Benjamin was Learning How To Shave. We've also been teaching him to drive.  He is a good driver, too.  One thing that we've been working on is another skill that a young man must master - tying a necktie.

We got out one of my neckties and I began to show him the steps in tying a full windsor knot.  It is not a difficult task, but it can be a little daunting at first.  We positioned ourselves in front of the mirror and got started.  Funny thing is, I had to get a tie out for me to walk through all the steps with him!  We put the tie around his neck and crossed it.

Tying one on

Then the wide side comes underneath and back over.

A mirror image

Then the wide side goes behind the skinny side and then over.

You can do it!

Then the wide side is brought horizontally across the front, forming the front part of the knot.  It is brought behind and then tucked between the horizontal part and the skinny part.  Awful confusing trying to explain it in words, huh?

Getting close...

At this point you have some semblance of a knot, but you've got to spend a little time "gussying up" your knot to form it and shape it into a nice looking knot.

A Little fine tuning

Here is the finished product.  That is a good looking knot.  It even looks good with a 4-H t-shirt on! Of course he'll wear a proper shirt when he goes out in public.  We practiced each evening over the course of the next week.  He got better and better and before you know it, he didn't even need my direction again.  He could do it without me.  That's the point.

Mastery of his skill

I promised him that if he mastered it, we'd buy him a tie of his very own.  Tricia picked him out a very spiffy navy blue and green striped tie - a timeless classic.  I think it is a nice looking tie.  Benjamin tied the perfect knot to wear his new tie to church this past Sunday.

Dressed for Success!

It was just in time for him to wear it for the Youth Program at church where the Youth put on a program to celebrate the birth of Christ.  The program celebrated the Good News of Christ's birth by pretending to be a News Channel (CNN: Christ News Network - "News for Jews that you can use") back in the time of Christ's birth and acted out how the Birth of the Christ Child might have been told on the news if there were televisions back then.

Benjamin was the traffic reporter, reporting of massive traffic jams of donkeys on the road in to Bethlehem as everyone was making their way back to their city for Caesar's mandated census.  He warned people that they might want to take alternate routes on their donkey commute and to keep both hands on the pommel and to buckle up and watch out for the Roman Highway Patrol.  The Youth did a great job and put on a memorable performance.  He looked good, too.  He sounded like (and with his tie, he LOOKED LIKE) a professional.

Yeah, I got this.

The old boy was dressed for success and quite proud of himself for learning a new skill.  I was proud of him too!