The weight of school books.

Today, I met Ainan, after a school golf lesson that never was. (The bus was cancelled, at the last minute, leaving the children idling, for a few hours, until their parents came.)

He seemed quite patient about it all. He had got so used to waiting that it took him a second or two before he acknowledged my existence by starting to rise from his chair in the office. It was as if he wasn't sure I had really arrived: was I just a mirage of expectation?

Anyway, he hefted his bag over one shoulder, at which I noted its seeming inertia and then he proceeded to attempt to put the other strap on the other shoulder.

"I'll take that." I indicated the bag.

He looked doubtful. "It's heavy.", he said, in warning.

I thought this sweet, funny and sad. It was sweet that he should think of his Dad carrying such a "heavy" weight, funny that he should think it would be heavy for me and sad that he should be so burdened, with such a mass in the first place.

"It won't be heavy for me." I assured him, sure of myself.

I grasped it in one hand and noted something surprising: it truly was heavy - even for me. I heaved it over my shoulder, finally understanding that he meant heavy not only in a relative sense (because he is so slight) but heavy in an absolute sense (because it was heavy enough to irritate me).

I don't know how he manages to carry such a heavy bag day in, day out. It really is too much. I found myself switching it from shoulder to shoulder every ten or fifteen minutes as we walked about the shops later.

There has to be a better way than this - and there is. Why can't there be lockers for every student so that they can leave most of their books at school? It would be a simple matter and would require only that the school invest in them. As far as I know, there are no such lockers. At least, Ainan has never mentioned them to me and he doesn't appear to use one.

Were individual lockers to be available for all then most books could be left at school each day and only those required for home that evening need be taken home. It would certainly make for a lighter load.

I rather hope my suggestion is taken up on a nationwide basis. It is time to give the children rather less to carry. No doubt it would prevent a lot of long-term health issues too. Carrying such heavy weights doesn't seem like a good idea for such slight bodies.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)