At the beginning of every academic year, there is the usual furore in our media about schoolbags getting heavier, and about children having to carry a large number of heavy textbooks to school every day. The problem is genuine for us, but not very common outside India. In most Western schools, for example, students are all assigned lockers where they can store their books, jackets etc. This saves them the trouble of carrying everything all the time. When they get to the school, they need to simply take the things they need from the locker for their next class.
Lockers are usually placed in the corridors between classrooms, usually in such a way that they are easily accessible for students, and preferably not out of the way.
As you can imagine, the locker becomes a personal space, and students learn to love it. Keeping your locker neat and tidy is important, and students also take to decorating their lockers with posters of their favourite animals or sports stars, or putting in some personal item such as a toy or a photograph.
Each locker then begins to reflect the personality of the student who owns it. A lot of interesting activities in school happen around the locker area! For example, the guy or girl you have a crush on might have the locker next to you, giving you the opportunity to strike up a conversation! Close friends also drop notes for each others in their lockers. Schools usually undertake regular inspections for the lockers to make sure students are using them according to the school policy.
Lockers are an important part of the social culture in schools. Students exchange gossip, meet new people and make new friends, and collect memories that will last them a lifetime.
You could get to be very good friends with your locker neighbour even if you don't share any classes with them. So the next time you hear someone fondly remembering the fun they had with their best friend in school and how that friendship started because they had neighbouring lockers, you know exactly what they're talking about!
sameeksha@skillspark.com
