Thursday 7 July 2011

The unresolved mystery of the German school bag



(images from http://www.schulranzen-markenshop.de/)

These are German school bags. I think on the whole they are pretty ugly. In fact I've not seen one that I would have wanted if I was of school age. I don't think I was that fussy, but honestly, no amount of peer pressure would have made me carry one of these boulders on my back.

But everyone has them here. As in, EVERYONE. They are an absolute must-have for school children here. I've half-convinced myself that there is a law that states no child will be allowed into the German school system unless they can carry their own body weight on their back for at least a few blocks.

These bags are huge and you quite often see German children walking bent over as though they are walking into the wind in Stornoway. But, that must be the look. Apparently there are brands that are more desirable than others. I was trying to unfurl the mystery as to why these bags are so popular when I came across a topic in Toytown (an expat message board) that says that in 2008 you can't go wrong with McNeill, Scout or 4YOU. I don't know whether in the ever-changing world of rucksack fashion these brands are still the ones to go for, because I just can't draw out anything cool from such a broad range of ugliness.

On this message board someone has asked whether there are special criteria for buying the 'right' bag, whether there are 'class distinctions' but the only thing they offer apart from choosing the 'right' brand, is that you get a big one. Size apparently does matter. With these rucksacks you usually get a pencil case, a P.E. bag, sometimes a little purse, or a water bottle. All well and good, but I'm still not convinced that these extras justify the price. Yes, yes, you could have a point that they have reflective parts, and plastic bottoms, and are ergonomically designed for your child, and have oodles of compartments. But honestly, how much would you pay for an ugly bag?

Because all of the bags I have shown you above cost over 150.00 Euros! At least one of these costs over 200.00 Euros! And I just don't get it?

23 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, when you said "I'm still not convinced these extras justify the price" I was thinking 50-70 Euros. If I am buying a bag that costs over 200 Euros it's going to be more along the lines of http://www.johnlewis.com/256822/Product.aspx

    Luckily I don't have children yet but I better start saving lol.

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  2. Ooh, I like your style! It's very unlike John Lewis to be remiss in their descriptions, but I couldn't find it mentioned anywhere that you can fit an A4 ringbinder in it.

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  3. If it's like Belgium, though, you will be able to find very similar yet not such expensive ones in the major supermarkets. Try that! Little kids don't care about the difference.

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  4. I don't need to worry about it. I asked Orla's school about whether she would need one of these a while back - not knowing the price at that time, just seeing the size of them and the crippled children walking the streets, and they said no, that they thought smaller bags were better.

    So I bought her a rucksack from Marks & Spencer's for an altogether more reasonable/rather fantastic £8. I think it looks nicer too - pink with little flowers - a wee bit Cath Kidston.

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  5. I nearly fell off my chair when you said 150 euros. And I can never believe it when I see little kids walking around with these things strapped on, they are so enormous I always imagine they must be jetpacks or something.

    When I was at primary school, everyone had those amazing little brown satchels with the transparent bit on the front for writing your name on. Everyone except me. How I wanted a little brown satchel. What did I get? I had the one that been my brother's and then my sister's that was blue and had Sinbad on. Gutted.

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  6. Oh, I love those little brown leather satchels. I wish I had thought of getting one for Orla - though probably I would be consigning her to outcast status from day 1.

    And on the subject of the Sinbad schoolbag- we're all here for you. We can feel your pain, even after all these years.

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  7. You might want to look at happytoys.de

    We found that our Thing1 needed that big schulranzen to actually put all her school things in. And the set comes with the required gym bag, ottle, food box, pass necklet, folding federstifte holder (filled with the required pens and pencils) and round pencil holder. It gets heavy, but a lot of things are left at school. We do have a normal backpack for ausflugs and so on, when the school books aren't required. My 5 year old often carries it for my 7 year old, so it's better balanced than one might think.

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  8. What? There are requirements?? See this is what I have no knowledge of. What do they need a pass necklet for? And what's the difference between a federstifte holder (I take it that's felt tip pens) and a round pencil holder? Why two, and why are the rules rigid? Don't the school have a stash of felt tips, crayons etc that the kids use?

    Crikey, I think I've been spending too much time putting together my schultutte...

    We've got the library book bag (which the school gave us) but I haven't even thought about a gym bag...I'm guessing the little pink bag shaped like a guitar that she uses for Sport at Kita isn't going to cut the mustard.

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  9. My lord, I wrote a post on the 33 separate and detailed items I needed to get for 1st class. The schulranzen sets that you see from Sout (and the ones on happytoys.de, some Scout, some not) all include the mandatory physical items that one must have. Not the detailed and incredibly specific demands of each teacher (T1 required multiple schnellhefts, each in a specific color, the wax crayons were a required number/set, the pencils were the three-cornered variety, etc.) THe Schulranzen will last for as many years as you can stand the logo (we are happily going into our 3rd year) and it doesn't seem that large now that my daughter will be 8 soon.
    I'd spend for it and know that if you don't you have made a choice that your child will wear every day: we don't buy brands, but for this, I bought what 95+% of children I saw in my daughter's school have. Also, the wheely ones are much heavier (because of the frame) and are not considered "normal". Life is hard enough for my kids, with their mom who speaks simplistic, bad German.When I can do something this easy to make them fit in, I do.

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  10. Sorry- no. Every child has their own things and there are indeed general things for, perhaps, an art class. But I got written up the second week for not sharpening all her pencils (colored and regular) each day before she went to class. Germans are orderly. Even though your daughter will be in a British school, I assume that the regs will be much the same because that's the way it is here.

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  11. I am in the Uk,I have an 11 year old just about to go up to Secondary school,an 8 year old in Junior school and a 4 year old about to start at the local infant school-it is nothing like that in the UK.At infant level all that I have provided is a lunchbox (if needed)and a PE bag which the pre-school my children attended kindly donate as a gift.At junior school they need a rucksack(any one is fine) a pencil case which they will need coloured pencils,a ruler,a pencil,rubber and pencil sharpener,art overall(an old shirt is fine).They can buy or earn extra stationary from a school shop for a good price.Secondary schools require more as expected.Feel free to ask more questions about the UK system as by this time next year I will have 4 kids at 4 stages-pre-school,infants,juniors and secondary.I hope your daughter enjoys school and it doesn't break the bank too much.I probably pay th equivalent here in the Uk for all of mine to go back to school including uniform and shoes.I am a huge bargain hunter though and shop around.

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  12. Thanks for letting me know how it is in the UK!

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  13. I just hope those things don't become popular in the UK.

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  14. Reading the original post, I wonder what the reaction of the people here would be if I observed that, in Japan, kids use a handcrafted leather school bag, called a "randoseru". Apparently, its gifted by (unfortunate) grandparents and its supposed to last the kids through their entire school years. It better last - cos prices start somewhere around USD 200 and can reach upto USD 800. Am I glad that here in Singapore, my kids never looked beyond Tinkerbell and Powerrangers !

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    1. I've just had a look at those. I really like them, I wouldn't mind a plain red one myself if I was still at school, but I had to do a conversion of the price into Sterling and nearly keeled over - over £400!!! WOW! Still, I much prefer them to the German ones which now look cheap & tacky by comparison. They look really sturdy and the leather looks nice. I even saw photos of one which had been through an entire school education and it was still in very good shape.

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  15. Have you considered the ergobag? They are a new brand and are quite different from the traditional German satchel.

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  16. So sad you all feel so bad a bout the German Schulranzen. Each culture has there own thing ,and I think we should respect that. I am German ,living abroad ,and the School Bags are trash here, I can tell you that! I wish I could get my daughter a German School Bag, that last me at least 4 years. I had to buy her 2 school bags last year . She comes in 1st grade this year and the Germans have the most beautiful way of celebrating it, in my opinions' .She saw the school bag and she didn't thought they were UGLY as you all believed they are.

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  17. You did find some particularly ugly ones there, definitely. :) Mine had a colorful lollipop pattern that was girly, sure (especially for a usually non-girly child), but not nearly as ugly. The bags themselves aren't that heavy, though, and are as expensive because they are supposed to be extra-light-weight, with back support etc. That is because there are usually no lockers in the elementary schools, so children have to carry their textbooks, notepads and such with them every day.
    The discussion about this, in turn, is picked up every few years, because it's more than questionable whether a thirdgrader should be carrying a 10kg backpack, even if only a few times a week.
    I actually had a similar experience when I saw elementary-school kids in the US. They had those tiny, absolutely not practical-looking backpacks, no space for books, some not even big enough to carry a notebook without dog-earing the paper. Oh, and they would get new backbacks, like, every year or so, some even more often than that, or have several to chose from. Not to mention that Dora the Explorer was on a good deal of them (though there are Dora backpacks in Germany, too... the ugly blue horses were popular even when I started school, but today there are a lot of popculture-themed ones, with Lego, Star Wars and whatnot).
    In the US high school I went to, a lot of kids would jsut have one big notebook, carry that outside of a bag - I was one of the few who had a regular backpack, a lot of them only brought purses or, even weirder, carried a purse in addition to whatever they used as their regular schoolbag.
    It just seemed similarly weird - but it's interesting to see how these feelings are mutual. :)

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    1. Where I can buy online the third backpack (red, white and black spots)

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    2. I need to now before September so the delivery can get to mi house in time,I'm very nervous about my secondary school !!!

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    3. You can send me an email on paholastarlight@gmail.com

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