School bags are way too heavy

Watching my son wobble down the path towards the school bus that would pick him up for the pobal scoil brought back memories of me doing the same sort of wobble, but it wasn’t going to school. I was too busy for that.

I was around the same age (13) when a neighbour called to the house and said that he had an extra bag of spuds that he had no need for. With a weight on my back that would buckle a donkey, my legs were locked into a dead straight position and it took a lot of effort to move forward without that bag pancake-ing me into the ground. I wobbled as if every step was going to be my last until I reached the house.

So why on earth in this modern day and age are children weighed down with such a load of books?