errilsr
k To

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Returning to

school, students
take up their
academic loads.

The
Way,

We

Learn

DIANA LIEBERMAN
Stag Writer

G

etting an education these
days is heavy work.
Just ask the students at
Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit.
When the four largest Jewish day
schools opened Wednesday for about
2,000 students, many had given up
the traditional backpack. Instead, they
were pulling canvas cases in wheeled
luggage carts — many looking large
enough for a Florida vacation rather

Diana Lieberman can be reached by

calling (248) 354-6060, ext. 247,
or by e-mail at
dlieberman@thejewishnews.corn

than a day at school.
"The books are so heavy," said 12-
year-old Josh Loeb of Huntington
Woods. "This makes it easier."
As she waited with daughter Lexie
for the doors to open, Inez Garfield of

Above: Starting kinder-
garten at Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah, Avrohom
Buckwold, 5, of Southfield,
tries out the playground.

R ht: Hillel Day School
fifth
Brad Garon
of Franklin and Tamar
Friedman of Farmington
Hills needed bookbags
on wheels.

Farmington Hills said the sheer num-
ber of things children have to take
with them to school every day is over-
whelming.
"With their lunches, books and all
their supplies, the backpack must
weigh 15 pounds,"
she said.
Eight-year-old
Lexie said she was
excited that, as a
third-grader, she
gets a locker for the
first time.
In metro
Detroit's public
schools, which
opened Monday or
Tuesday, teenagers

9/3
1999

Detroit Jewish News

17