The one with the School Bag

Last week there were tears.  My five year old niece came home from school having been told that she was no longer allowed to take her bag into the classroom.  Instead, she should use a book bag.  Luckily, she already had a book bag at home, so the changeover should have been straightforward - but no!  She loved her bag.  It was big and brown, had funny animals printed on it, and it could hold everything a five year old could possibly need!

She wasn't happy, but it was school policy.

Bags like hers take up too much space in the cloakroom - they cause a potential tripping hazard in the corridor and create a general untidy environment to work in.  Book bags, on the other hand, fit safely and tidily in the box provided.  It makes sense.

I explained the rationale behind the bag exchange to her, and although she understood, she wasn't impressed. 


But, rules were rules, and reluctantly she swapped her beloved brown bag for the regulatory blue book bag.  And that was that.  End of story.


Until ...




You can read the rest of this post, written for YouthWork Conference here ... This will take you to the main page, click on the blog tab at the top, and find the post titled 'Everyone Else Does it!'  And while you are there - why don't you check out the rest of the blog posts and site?  There's a lot of good 'stuff' there!

Let me know what you think :)