School bags

Your son is lucky to have gone to such a school. I think its very important that we make them think and evaluate through practical learnings. Books are necessary but nowadays the pressure is so much that the children are bowing down to it!

I am still at college, so I suppose this is suitable for this discussion. My bag is probably not more than 20% my weight is I way nearly 7 stone and it is unlikely that my bag weighs like 8 to 9 stone. But it is still really heavy. Recently, I have started having problems with my back. It hurts and feels really stiff all because I have 1 folder to carry, a huge notebook, 3 textbooks, other stationary as well as purse, key, phone and other things that women keep in their bags. When I was at school, I saw year 7's around the age of 11/12 carrying bags that were almost as big as they were, due to having to carry around books, textbooks and PE kits. I am so glad I never bothered with PE otherwise my back would have been screwed 5 years earlier.

I wish that my daughter could be in that school.Though the church park is a very good school here she still uses to carry her school bag like the sherpas in the everest.

Some of this is the kids fault. Since middle school my grandkids have carried almost all their books from on class to another every day and yes those book bags get heavy. The kids are given locker but they don't want to take the time to go to them to deposit those extra books. They choose to lug those heavy bags around the school all day long. Get you kids to use the lockers they are given.

I remember carrying quite a heavy bag full of books and notebooks during elementary school... it was just pure torture... and i was glad to reach highschool since we don't have the same subjects everyday... so the burden of carrying a heavy bag disappeared... Nowadays... children still take home a lot of books and notebooks... that is why parent opted to buy trolley bags so kids would just pull them instead of carrying them on their back or shoulder... i hope when my baby goes to school... she won't need to bring a lot of books home...

In the philippines, some schools have lockers so that the things can be left in school.Strollers are also used for heavy bags

The whole issue seems to be very well managed by the school authorities and they need to be aplauded for this. My children have to carry a much heavier bag with accessories like spoon, knife, fork and napkins too apart from the lunchbox and books as per the timetable. I think your discussion is worth putting infront of the school management and i am confident they would like this way of reducing the unnecessary load on the children.

Hi Sandhya, Glad to know that your son doesn’t have to carry a heavy load. My son has to carry one and inspite of the school’s best intentions, the bag is never almost empty. The worse is on Fridays. A list of the typical things that my son carries to school on Friday: Arith – book (2), rough book Eng lit – book, rough book Beng lang – book, rough book GSC – book, rough book, GK – book, rough book Drawing & craft– work book, marble paper book, colour pencil box, pastel box Regular pencil box Lunch box It’s the same every other day, but Friday is the worse for the drawing sets that he has to carry. Otherwise he is carrying on average 6 books and 6 rough books for class practice. On days there are class-works, he has to carry the CW copies too. He is in class III and his school does not give too many homeworks too. He just has to go thru whatever is taught in class at home every evening. How is the leg shaping up? Its almost end of session in most schools and next session is due now. Poor darling must have had a very bad Holi. I wish him speedy recovery…its really painful to see little children being forced to lie still at one place for long.

Wow. Years ago when I was in school, light bags were unheard of. I used to drag around 5 or 6 large textbooks and it was hard.

First, I want to say that I don't have children - just so you know where I come from in this discussion. Second, I agree with you on this. The children are carrying too much weight in there back packs. As a matter of fact, I agree so much that I have previously written a letter to the editor of my local paper about this with a suggestion. I suggested that children only be allowed homework in one or two subject per day. So Monday is math day, Tuesday is English, etc. The way I remembered is that you got a little bit of homework from every subject so you had to carry every book in that back pack. I don't know if it's that way now or not, but I thought it was a good idea. No one commented on my letter, so I don't know how it turned out. If anyone used it to take to a PTA meeting and got something accomplished from it, I hoped that they'd have written into the paper to let us know. Any ways, sorry to go off like that, but I just wanted to add my two cents!

I don't have any children but I observe naturally how the kids around my area are ...yes they have these tremendous book bags that look like they weigh a ton and are filled but what most kids do is get one of those small roller type cart things and secure the book bag on them...But the idea that is being done in your area sounds so much more convenient and practical...maybe we should copy that idea as I really feel sorry for kids who are burdened with such large book bags even with the roller carts...just doesn't make sense

The most my son carries home in his book bag is a folder and maybe a library book. His teacher decided at the beginning of the year that any textbook work would be finished in the classroom, so that the students did not have so much stuff to carry home at night. He also is getting a lot less homework from this teacher. He has no more than 1 paper most night.

Gee, 20% of their body weight that is quite alot of extra baggage they are carrying. I think that is a great policy that your son's school has introduced, what a good system all schools should implement this. My daughters school bag is not too heavy, it usually just consists of her lunch box, and one homeowrk book each day. I feel sorry for highschool kids they would probably have more then 20% of their body weight with all the different subjects they do, that means they could have up to 8 books at a time in their bag each day. Plus their text books are quite heavy, they would get back problems.

Really heavy but the best thing to do hear is to get them a stroller. backpacks are great because it evens out the weight in his left and right shoulders. However, it's still the best if the child would just drag the bag. It is not ideal for them to carry bags with just one strap because it puts all the weight on one side.

Hello,Viswan!in recent years the burden of school bags over children has increased many fold.they are carrying almost all books and exercise books daily to the school besides lunch box and water bottle.recently my grand child asked me to send him a Dictionary which the teacher has asked him to carry with him to school.is it not an extra burden on him?i do not understand why the students are carrying so much burden on their back.the scool education system should be modified suitably to lighten the burden on the children.thank you.