Heavy backpacks take their toll on students
By By Michelle Blaylock, Mom’s Corner
I always love hearing about the kids’ day when they get home from school or in the van when I pick them up at school.
A couple of weeks ago, one of my children was walking from the junior high to the high school where her brother usually meets them after school, but he had to be at work a little earlier so I met them instead. I waited and waited, but one daughter was really late making it to the van and I was beginning to worry.
When she finally arrived, I asked what on earth had taken her so long. She blushed and replied, “See my backpack?” I looked back in the mirror and noticed it was bulging at the seams. She said, “I couldn’t fit all my homework in it. So I had to carry one of my notebooks. Well, I dropped my notebook and when I bent over to pick up the papers my backpack slid forward and I fell over!”
I couldn’t help but chuckle a little, but I still responded with “Are you OK?” My poor daughter said, “Yeah, but I was like a turtle on its back! And I couldn’t get up! I was just kind of lying in the street, trying to get this stupid backpack off! Some boy who was walking to the Junior High stopped and helped me up and helped me pick up my papers. I was so embarrassed!”
I imagine she was embarrassed. My high school daughter was throwing her backpack over her shoulder and almost fell over, too! Just out of curiosity, I looked up the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics on backpack safety.
First of all, although it is not “cool,” backpacks should be worn on both shoulders not just on one side or the other especially if the backpacks are heavy. So what constitutes “heavy?”
According to the AAP, a backpack should not weigh more than 20 percent of a student’s weight. So my little 108 pound high school student should not carry a backpack over 21.6 pounds.
Personally, I do not think I would want to carry even that much around all day! True, they do have lockers but I know many students cannot go to their lockers after every class, so they end up carrying most of their locker with them all day.
In all honesty, there really is not a good solution to this. The AAP suggest buying a set of textbooks for home use. I do not know who they think they are making a recommendation to, but most parents I know simply could not afford to do this.
A couple of teachers have told me that before their class sizes grew so large they sometimes were able to keep a set of books in the classroom and still issue the students a book for home. I have heard many people complain that they did not have all these heavy textbooks years ago, but they learned just fine. Although that is true, I believe our children have more to learn and more subjects to cover than years ago.
Overall, I believe eventually schools will begin to look at other alternatives to textbooks such as the e-books (electronic books) I have discussed before. E-books would be easily updated from year to year doing away with outdated textbooks. The biggest hindrance to these will be the cost of e-book reading devices. However, as with all technology, the cost will decrease over time.
I hope you all have a wonderful week. If you have a comment or suggestion for Mom’s Corner, please e-mail it to: moms-corner@juno.com
