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Some things never change

I remember, while getting off from the school bus on a sunny day my son was adjusting his heavy school bag on his shoulder. He knelt and touched the ground to balance the bag. I asked him to give it to me but he insisted on carrying it himself. He said, "No papa, you cannot carry it. It's heavy."
This conversation happened almost 18 years ago when my son was just 8. He is 26 now, but looking at the newspapers I can say not much has changed for school-going children since then. What a stark contrast to the rest of the world! Today people carry the world in their pockets in the form of smartphones. We have the power of Google, WhatsApp and all sorts of applications and software that have made our life easier. But why haven't we been able to change the way we impart education in our schools? Why has the saga of school bags remained the same? Can we not find a simple way of lessening the burden of bags for our tiny tots?
We should spare our children from such unnecessary burden and allow them their fair share of ease before they get all tied up in the grinding wheel of life.
-Narendra Sadhwani 'Khak', Dubai