It’s only the beginning of term but already I can see some poor children groaning about school, labouring about with great heavy bags on their backs. When I’ve asked some of them what’s in them, I’ve found out that all the week’s text books and, in some cases — P.E. kit is stuffed into their bags. Others have nothing at all and clearly haven’t thought about what books to bring.
It makes me think that parents could help their children by guiding them at the beginning of term about packing their bags. Anecdotally, I have noticed that the more poorly organised a child’s bag is, the worse he/she generally does — although this isn’t a definite rule. Getting children to work out what to put in their bags the night before and helping them organise them for themselves is crucial to help him/her get into a routine that’s established throughout the year.
It sounds like a little thing — but for me it’s very important. My advice have a chat to them about it now before it becomes a problem. Indeed, some child psychologists like Jean Piaget saw these sorts of organisational skills as vital to a child’s development.
talesbehindtheclassroomdoor 
I have 3 children in secondary school and agree a well packed bag is essential. I work in early years and packing bags is quite clearly something many adults have never mastered judging by the contents sent for their child. Hence we have a lovely end of day “bag routine” even for the 5 year old just starting out in school life, however even the best packed bags are usually far to heavy in my opinion for the mile and half school walk my children do.
I like the lovely end of the day “bag routine” 🙂
Another deep thought from FG on education theory – more material, perhaps, for inclusion in a PhD thesis.
This *big issue* here is children’s bags.
However, FG is quick to qualify his remarks yet again( perhaps because he is aware that, once again, he isn’t saying anything of substance): “Anecdotally, I have noticed that the more poorly organised a child’s bag is, the worse he/she generally does — although this isn’t a definite rule.”
Ahh – anecdotes again. You’ll really have to move on intellectually, Francis, from anecdotes to evidence, if you want to write a serious PhD.
Francis gives the game away in his final para: “It sounds like a little thing” – that’s because it is, but you like to fill your blog with whatever idle thought crosses your mind, so you have to pretend that it’s not as little as it really is. You even have the gall to invoke the name of a *real* education thinker to sustain the pretence that you are making a comment of any significance. However, it’s a desperate argument to suggest that your ditty about children’s bags bears any relation to Piaget’s ideas about the organisation of thoughts.
In fact, it could make an interesting piece of research, both qualitative and quantitative; case studies on children’s bags, and then perhaps some kind of quantitative measures about them, whether there are any correlations between the weight of children’s bags and their health, achievements.