BACKPACKS

I go off on this rant about once a year. It all started when one of my student trainers walked in with a backpack that looked as big as she did.

The next day, I brought in a set of scales and weighed her backpack. It weighed 26 pounds. This high school junior (it’s been several years ago) weighed 96 pounds. So that backpack was over 25% of her body weight!

And she carried it around all day. Hunched forward, leaning into it like leaning into a fierce wind. It’s not one school or another…it’s pretty much all of them.

Since then, I’ve made it a point to be vocal about that problem. It’s partly professional and partly personal. After all, I have 7 grandchildren, all of which may be in the same predicament.

At the same time, I’ve seen too many teenagers with back and neck pain that can be attributed to that backpack.

So what’s the real problem?  For a long time I have blamed huge textbooks. That’s still part of the problem but with the move to compute-based learning, it’s less of a problem.

I asked several students to share the contents of their too heavy backpacks. What I found was surprising. Food—full meals actually, not just snacks. Gym clothes. Spare clothes. Phones. Chargers. Batteries. Tons of personal items. And on and on.

In asking around, I also found out that kids don’t use their lockers anymore. In my random survey of a dozen teenagers, only 2 used their locker.

Why? It’s not cool. I can remember when kids would decorate their locker, applying a personal touch to what they saw as a personal space. Not so anymore. Apparently backpacks are cool and lockers are not.

It’s not convenient. Schools are generally bigger these days, especially around here, so it’s hard to visit your locker between classes. You only have so much time between classes and it’s perfectly normal to prefer chatting with your friends than making the hike to your locker which may be a good distance away.

And goodness knows you don’t want to be late to class nor do you want to be running through the halls to get to your locker and back. That will get you into trouble in a hurry.

It’s just easier to carry everything with you. So lockers have become a thing of the past. Your backpack is your locker these days.

We are beginning to see the end of textbooks. That will help. I still study but haven’t owned or referred to a textbook in decades. My information is in my laptop.

What can we do to encourage locker use? I don’t know the answer to that one. The logistics of making sure everyone’s locker is close to their classes make it impossible.

Students, think about what you are doing to your neck and back by trying to carry so much stuff around all day. Plan better. Pack smarter.

Parents, take an interest in what your child is carrying every day. A little guidance there goes a long way.