Have You Noticed How Big The School Bags Have Become?

I am in awe of, or rather alarmed at how much the modern scholar needs to learn.

Did we ever have to learn so much, back in the day or rather back in the 20th Century. Once a week I help a local lad with his English homework. I enjoy it but I must say that it is a lot of knowledge he has to absorb.

Well, knowledge not so much as it is more a case of learning it by rote. Who knew that there were so many differing rules regarding the English language. Unfortunately when you study English as a second language, you need to know every inch of writing in the rule book of the English Language.

But really, wouldn't it be more beneficial if each term the pupils have to read a novel for part of their homework. Yes, a novel that interests them and once they get a taste of the lost art of reading, the language and the correct structuring of sentences would become second nature. Isn't that the way we learned English as children?

But that is just the subject of English. When I sit at his kitchen table with English books covering most of it, I can't help but notice how full his school bag still is. I have a pretty good idea that once we have finished the English portion of homework, he needs to plough through a mountain of other homework. No wonder most kids don't like school.

What obscure facts and figures are the kids being taught nowadays? More importantly, will they use this knowledge once they enter the real world! Honestly, once they launch into society, Google is going to be the font of all knowledge anyway.

When those students who have just started high school now, finish their schooling you can bet your bottom dollar that their smartphone will be all they need to get by in life. A computer in hand. A computer with so much more capacity and ability than the one they carry now.

Look, I don't know if the curriculum has adjusted to our new world reality. Like them or not, computers play a part in our daily life. In fact often the biggest part.

Who still uses maps for orientation and who still does sums by heart
or with a pen & paper?

Now and again we drive past the local school bus as the kids get home from school. For some kids the school bag almost looks bigger then they are. But what all the school bags have in common is that they are and look darn heavy. Schlepping all your school paraphernalia does that. I can imagine a lot of sore backs in the future...

Biggi