Kids backpacks are too heavy!

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m really just looking for feedback as whether my perceptions are askew or if there is really something different going on than when I was a kid.

My 10th grade daughter’s backpack is at least 25-30+ lbs most of the time and it’s filled with books for most of her subjects. Any non-academic items go into a large bulky purse (but that’s another issue).

Concern about this has prompted me to quiz her more than once about whether she could lighten the load. According to her the school is simply too big (it is a big school), and class switchover times too short for her to efficiently make the trip back and forth to her locker for each of her classes which are scattered around the school, so she has to keep most of her books in her bookbag at all times. She effectively has to keep her locker on her back.

In looking at the contents of this bag it seems most of the weight is comprised of these large, heavy colorful books that even the advanced classes favor. My 10th grade was in 1973 and I don’t remember the books being (on average) anywhere near this large or heavy.

I addition to busting out the seams of a brand new Jansport (a big, heavy duty one BTW) by the end of the year (every year) I’m also concerned about the effects on her posture and growing body of lugging around this lump everywhere. As another general observation when picking up my son from 6th grade I see even little kids carting around huge backpacks with wheels on them for God’s sake!

Am I the only parent concerned/paranoid about this? Am I forgetting how heavy bookbags were in the 70’s? Why do these books have to weigh 3-5 pounds each? Is this a function of the increasing size of schools and desire to tart up textbooks with color and pictures? Why not put the damn books on the net with secured access so kids wouldn’t have to lug the things home all the time.

Are bookbag weights and sizes different than the 70’s or not? I know it sounds trivial but it really pisses me off when I see small and growing kids having to lug, drag and heave these monster bags everywhere.

Any replies appreciated.

2

No, you’re emphatically not the only parent to be worrying about this. Heavy backpacks have been a major topic of contention in Norway for several years. They can indeed cause spine and posture problems. According to the figures Norwegian schools are supposed to work with (based on discussions with pediatricians and physical therapists), a growing child or teen should not carry more than 10% of his or her weight - that means that your daughter is most likely carrying at least twice what she should, unless she’s a weight lifter.

It has also become very popular for the kids to use daypacks like hikers use, which are not only better for their spines but also sturdier than backpacks sold primarily as school bags. But really, this is a problem that needs to be taken up with the school - breaks between classes should be long enough that a student has time to get to her locker at least a couple of times a day.

3

I think it depends on the school. My sister has 8 classes with each requiring a individual binder so everyone at her school uses a locker because all of her stuff wont fit into one backpack.

I know that my school recently increased the time between classes by 4 minutes to help using a locker.

4

If books get to be a big problem, she should ask her teachers if she can just stick her book needed for that class in there. Usually it is a yes, at your own risk. Which, if you find a nice place to hide your book, can really pay off.

And you do know about putting heavier and larger items closer to her back? She may just want to carry around one or two books in her hand, that is what I sometimes do.

5

Or you could invest in one of the backpacks with wheels. I LOVE mine. Being in college, I don’t HAVE a locker, and I usually have several books to haul around with me. I don’t think it’s appropriate to make kids haul around all their stuff with them, but if there’s nothing you can do about that right now, those bags save a LOT of effort, and not a little back pain.

6

IANAP but I have definately read about other parents having this same concern. From what I can discern the solutions are 3 (all already mentioned):

  1. petition the school to extend the between-period time or allow students to visit their lockers during Lunch
  2. Kid-sized hiking backpack designed for load-bearing
  3. Put books in carry-on style bag with handle and wheels (not ideal for schools with stairs)

Good luck

7

Funny - I went to the same school as my siblings, and although my brother and I had no trouble going to and from class with a stop at the locker (even occasionally a stop at the cafeteria), my sister was always lugging her books around to every class, claiming there was no time to get to her locker. Our high school was big, but I never thought it was that bad. But then, she’s always the first student in class, and shes a bit (understatement) of an overacheiver. Even now, in her second year of Cegep, she still lugs her books to class, despite having a locker AND never EVER needing a textbook in lecture!

And I agree that it must be a cause of physical problems, though I really only have my sister to go by, and she has arthritis to begin with. One year in high school, she missed over 50% of school days due to her pain. She still finished with a 95% average.

I think the kids carrying their textbooks everywhere are probably more like my sister - they really want to be successful. I suppose in that, you should be glad your kids are carrying their textbooks everywhere. It’s a sign they care about their work :slight_smile: But petitioning the school for a slightly longer break might not be a bad idea. I just wonder if, even given evnough time, these kids will change their habits?

8

tHEY ARE A PROBLEM (whoops)

Here’s a suggestion that will help a little. Have her aquire (one way or another) a duplicate copy of the text books. This way she can have a set at home and a set at school and she doesn’t have to lug the books around (both my wife and I figured that one out when we were going to school).

9

**

I had a smiliar problem when I went to a senior high. This school housed about 1,600 students and physically it was a large school with 4 different buildings. I went to my locker in the morning and got all the books necessary for my morning classes, I went again before lunch and collected my books for afternoon classes, and my last trip was after school to collect any books I had to take home with me.

She probably doesn’t need to go to her locker after every class. If she goes just a couple of times per day she’ll be able to limit the weight she has to carry at any given time. I guess that won’t help so far as what she might have to carry home. But I don’t remember many times when I had to bring home all my books.

**

My parents didn’t seem to concerned about it nor did my fellow students. But then most of us went to our lockers at least 2-3 times a day. Some people more if they had a good locker location.

**

Publishing rights maybe as well as the fact that not all kids have access to the net.

Marc

10

I don’t know if it’s a rule in California, or just where I live, but kids in the 5th grade and up MUST use the backpack with wheels. It’s to prevent damage to their spine. And, of course kids in lower grades cannot take books home because they might not return them. :rolleyes:

What with technology and all, I’m surprised we haven’t taken advantage of it and put all the books necessary on a CD which (as you smart people know :eek: ) is much lighter to carry around than a bunch of books. I think, however, there is a problem with this: publishers? authors? How would they make their money?

Probably hasn’t been for the same reason we don’t have a plethora of battery operated cars. :smiley:

11

Well, um, not everybody has a computer, much less Internet access. In fact, not every body has money for backpacks with wheels (do they really require that? In my neighborhood buying a new backpack very likely means going without food for a while).

Just feel lucky your school has lockers. In my school they were deemed a “safety issue” and removed. The only thing that saved my back was our block schedules- meaning that we only had half of our classes on any given day.

12

One more person here agreeing that you are right to be concerned. Kids’ backpacks (loaded with books) are too heavy; many exceed the recommended weight.

Consumer Reports recently did a test of rolling backpacks (for this reason) but a lot of parents wrote in to gripe that some of the top-reviewed bags did not fit into standard lockers.

Since your daughter is not the only person at risk, this is something the entire school should be looking into. If their policies are harming students, they’ve got to change.

My son will be 3 next summer and I’ve thought about buying those cute little kiddy backpacks so he can haul around some of his more precious toys and stuff next summer. But I’ve decided against it because I’m worried we’ll inadvertently overload him. And it’s too early for him to be courting back problems!!

13

My 127lb son attends a 5A high school that has only 4 minutes between each class. He has two lockers, one in the regular locker bank and the other in the other end of the school in the field house. He has two heavy duty back packs a blue one for “A” day and a gray one for “B” day, together they weigh almost 60 lbs. Additionally he has a gym bag that he drops off in his athletic locker everyday.

On meet the teachers night we walked the courses in order for his day. We found that if I had to do it, I would be tardy every day to almost half his classes.

14

A significant problem besides the weight factor is that people will often sling their backpack over one shoulder which can cause some serious physical problems.

Lola goes to college and I am always on her case NOT to carry 30 pounds of books on one shoulder.

The backpacks with wheels are a great idea if your schedule doesn’t allow you to leave your books in your locker.

15

I failed to mention that the backpacks on wheels are not permitted as they have been deemed a tripping hazard in the crowded hallways.

16

AbbySthrnAccent thats why at my school it was increased by 4 minutes to 8.

I was kind of like that, only I never went to my locker because I was too lazy. It can depend on what classes you get. Some classes are so far apart that getting there in 8 minutes without going to a locker can be hard:)

17

Busting out the seams of a Jansport? That seems really extreme. Even with all the books and general junk I’ve carried, my Jansport is still in one piece. Not even my friends, who have enough stuff crammed into their backpacks to live for weeks, have managed that. That’s more than excessive weight.

Some smaller students at my school carry their larger textbooks in their arms. Sort of a counterbalance. There’s rarely any time to visit lockers (assuming you even have a functioning locker…I haven’t gotten mine to open yet), so everyone carries their books. Some teachers aren’t happy about backpacks, but there’s not much they can do.
jessica

18

A quick browse of the previous posts leads me to believe I may be the first person to say this, but here goes: Waaah! Give me a flurking break, huh? Stop whining and make some solutions.

I’ll try to help a little bit with the problems if I can:
[li] “10th grade daughter’s backpack is at least 25-30+ lbs” SOLUTION: Stop buying her “big, heavy duty” backpacks. When I was in school, we all had fairly modest backpacks that would hold basically just our binders and maybe one or two texts. You carry the rest in your arms. This way you (a) balance the load on your torso and (b) develop a little muscle tone in your arms. I swear to God I’ve seen students with backpacks that had magnesium frames. I wanted to tell them: “That’s for climbing mountains, honeybunch, not carrying your books!”[/li]
[li] “According to her the school is simply too big …” SOLUTION: [sub]I’m going to be generous and not point out that the key phrase here is “According to her.”[/sub] Draw a map of the school and her classes. Figure out the optimal location for a locker that would allow her to swap books more often. Go to the administration and insist that she be allowed to move her locker there. Explain your concerns about her well-being.[/li]
[li] “most of the weight is comprised of these large, heavy colorful books.” SOLUTION: Home school. Texts are getting heavier because more and more demands are being made on their publishers to cater to every whim of educational faddism that comes along. “Ooh, phonics is important. We’d better mention how to pronounce every freaking word in this AP-level European history book.” “Multiculturalism is important. We’d better include two pages about a minority figure who had something … no, scratch that … anything to do with the Teapot Dome scandal.” You wanna get around this? Home schooling is about your only option.[/li]
P.S.: I know I’m being a little short, but I really, really do mean all of this in the spirit of helping.

19

If someone is carrying all of his or her books at once, that is probably a personal choice. Many people carry all of their morning books to their morning classes, then after lunch take out the morning books and put in what they need for the afternoon. That alone will reduce the weight by about 50%.

Breaks of more than about 4 or 5 minutes between classes are just silly. We have 7 classes per day at my school, and if we had the 8 minute breaks mentioned earlier, that would be some 56 total minutes of time just getting books and moving to the next class. That is more than 10 minutes longer than what a full period is for us. No thank you.

People are not carrying these backpacks around on their backs at every moment of the day. They are carrying them for 2-4 minutes between classes, and out to their car at the end of the day. We have 4 morning classes, and weighing my backpack with the heaviest possible combination of books (4 AP textbooks + 4 notebooks + calculator, glasses, pencils, and miscellaneous papers), it weighs 21 pounds. At its theoretical lightest, it weighs just a few pounds (English paperback novel, a thin moral theology book, and 3 honors Spanish paperback textbooks). On average, it weighs somewhere between 10 and 15 pounds probably, but even with everything in it, it’s under 25 pounds.

10 to 15 pounds is under the 10% of total student weight mark (cited by others in this thread) for most high school students, I would think. But even if it’s not, people are not carrying these backpacks more than 20-30 minutes* each day, and not consecutive minutes either, but with plenty of breaks.

I would not be worried.

*[sub]Hell, I probably have my backpack on my back for less than that, because, for example, the math department and science department share a wing of the school, so if I have statistics and physics back to back, I walk about 15 seconds from one to the other. I doubt I wear my backpack for more than 5-10 minutes a day, but I go to a small high school, so I recognize that this does not apply to everyone.[/sub]

20

:rolleyes:

Some schools I’ve heard do not allow anyone to carry backpacks at all. Others have done the opposite-ban lockers and students have to carry around everything.

Not to mention the bags on wheels would be a problem with steps.