JUST PUSH THE BUTTON, KID

Shoe tying is becoming a lost art among the younger set, and that's not a good thing:

The rise of the laceless shoe, typically a high-tech moccasin, and a youthful aversion to tying shoes, have become a matter of concern to some child development experts. Surely not a sign of a civilization in decline, they admit, but perhaps another unsettling step in the march of technology into children's lives.

The problem, according to Diane Levin, a professor of education at Wheelock College in Boston, begins in the crib with push-button toys to calm infants and proceeds with "talking books," "Baby Einstein" videos and other gadgets intended to make learning easier and more entertaining. The danger, Ms. Levin said, is that things are too automated and that children end up suffering from "problem-solving deficit disorder."

"The real issue is not that kids don't learn to tie their shoes," she said. "It's that they don't get engaged in the problem-solving process that shoe-tying is part of."

You mean it's...it's...better for children to think rather than simply push a button? Hmmmm....