As we head toward the end of the school year I find myself reflecting on a number of changes that I’ve experienced over the year. One of the first things that I noticed was this phenomenon where students coming into my lab would spend the whole period with their backpacks continuously attached to their backs. At first I couldn’t understand why they’d want to sit in their chair or walk around with those heavy backpacks attached. To me they seemed like “parachute people” who couldn’t be separated from their backpacks.Of course, the reality of life in middle school, especially after the demise of the “student locker,” is that they need to carry everything with them from class to class (except textbooks). The other reality is that an unattended backpack tends to get rifled through by supposed friends and neighbors. And with kids bringing in iPods and cell phones (though they are prohibited from doing so), it’s all the more important to keep an eye on ones backpack. I have a greater appreciation of this need to keep an eye on ones stuff, especially after my iPod got ripped off. Argh! So, more power to the parachute people. Besides, you never know when gravity will disappear… and who better to survive weightlessness than the parachute peopleJBB