Beasts of burden

"Mom, I can't go to school, my back is aching" cried my 12-year old son. I massaged in some Iodex, the pain reliever, promising him a trip to the school to sort out his weighty problem. As he left, I slumped into a chair, drained...after all packing a kid off to school, surely, must be the toughest challenge? But I was wrong.
As I walked into the school later that afternoon to pick up my son and to scrutinize the benches at close quarters, my son thrust his school bag into my hands, and skipped away, backache forgotten, to play with his friends.
And that was when I got the shock of my life...It was all to do with the bag. I finally understood that the reason for my son to consistently complain was the weighty bag. Now, the reason established, I could not let it go at that. I carefully lugged the sack home tugging my boy alongside me, thoughtful, angry, surprised, puzzled. What could the little bag contain?
That evening I poured out the contents. Lunch box, water bottle, mid-morning snacks, pencil box with pens, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, God's photo (Only He could tell me from where my little boy had picked that one from), marbles, bits of papers, little knick-knacks exchanged with others, blades (that shook me up a bit!), keys, key chains, scale and all the other instruments of the geometry box, though not required, all the same there, because the elder boy carried them.
Then came the books, they fell out one after the other....eight text books, eight note-books, all bound, test papers, test note books, project books, moral story book. How many kilos would they all weigh? I was flabbergasted. Those thin shoulders were carrying so many things?
Next day, I marched to the school. I blasted the teachers who looked totally helpless. Next, I attacked the principal who promised me she would look into the matter, right away.
The next day, the new time-table was announced and for a month or so, I was relieved to see that the problem was solved. But alas, my joy was short-lived.
The new month arrived and with it new activities and new books. The beast was burdened again. This time not only with the books and the other trivia but with project material balanced precariously in both hands, the back saddled with the school bag and the lunch bag.
I returned to the school and this time I knew there was going to be no respite. The school had to do what they had to do; complete the syllabus.
That set me thinking. Could I suggest something which could help these hapless children? Maybe I could! I remember as a child, I had completed one year of my training through an Amercian course, called the Calvert course. The entire study material was divided according to semesters. All the text books and note books were of 40 pages. Enough exactly for one semester. The next semester one need not carry the previous semester books! So in all, the child hardly carried any weight, the added advantage being, loss of books needn't mean that the child had to rewrite loads or hunt for the entire book again. Apart from which, the government could publish the books in instalments, thus reducing one time cost for the parents too!
Education has to be made interesting not only content-wise but also by reflecting on the other finer aspects.