The other day I saw a mother dropping her son to school in a most bizarre style. I watched as she struggled with the young lad’s school bag before engaging in that usual ceremony of hugging. All this was meant to confirm a mother’s love.
No wonder kids of today grow to be softies — I am old school. Trust me, that simple act of dropping your child to school is enough show of love — and let the kid carry his or her own bag. Show affection, but don’t over dot it.
Back to the school bag.
When we were young, going to school was something we looked forward to — that was because we had the opportunity to carry and show off that tiny, fancy bag.
Most of them were green in colour and resembled a sling bag. The bag would carry all the books, most of which were torn, lunch box, ink, pens, pencils and later in class four, an Oxford mathematical set. We used to carry the bags with pride and our parents made us carry them, which was a reminder that we were going through another stage in life. We could carry these without much sweat.
Today school kids have the luxury of having school bags with wheels. They hardly labour to carry their load to and from school.
Such bags were hard to come by, and were a preserve of adults or the very rich. I remember seeing one myself after joining college.
Most of the bags these days are the rucksacks (we called them ‘ragi’) and have multiple colours with multi-pockets. During our time, we only used rucksacks after joining secondary school. Most of these resembled military bags meant for hard combat.
A few innovative ones would visit mama cherehani to have the design of their sling bags altered to resemble ‘ragi’.
In Buru Buru One, where I went to school, one had to carry his bag all the time — with all your belongings — as it was not safe to leave your books in the desk.
That is why we grew to become very strong men (and women). A few of us would even play football — for hours — with the bag resting on our tiny backs. football with it. The first time I went to St Mary’s School Nairobi aka ‘Saints’, I was shocked to see lockable lockers. They had keys just like those I used to see in the movies.
Most of the locks were faulty — we had to use dog chains to secure them. It was a sin to rush home claiming your books had been stolen, so we had to be tough.
I still admire the culture of the sling bag, I still carry them just to be transported back to my childhood days. The culture of sling bags for primary schools should come back to make the kids strong and stop the laziness of having school bags with wheels.
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@AineaOjiambo
