do students need to carry heavy books to school?

Its unfair on children carring such a huge bag. I remember my school days. It used to be a problem carrying a heavy bag. It used to be more problems in rainy season. The school should make provision for the books to be kept in school.

I think it's possible. My daughter's school has 2 sets of books, one for the classroom and one for the students to keep at home. Great idea, but not all school districts are that rich.

That might be the case - this is not the first news report I'm hearing on how hefty school bags are straining children. Well, it's obvious that if the schools require them to carry heavy bags, then they must also ensure the necessary transportation facilities to the concerned students as to curb the toll taken on them. But that should be the last resort, if nothing else can be done to reduce the mass weighing them down. Talking about ideas, there are plenty of them which can be implemented, but little has changed since the time we were kids and now, thanks to our education system. For example, in many schools the students may be asked to carry textbooks, notes and homework books everyday (and this is just for one subject) which I think is burdensome. They can cut down on this by organizing their classes beforehand and focusing on one activity per day; like, one day exclusively for giving notes, one day for reading out textbook lessons, one more for revisions and one other for checking assignments or writing tests. This will not only help reduce the burden, but also keep the students better focused. I'm sure if the administrators and teachers of educational institutions sit around and have a talk, a lot of feasible ideas will pop up which can be put into effect soon and tested - but do they really care? That's where the most of our problem lies.

If you've been a student for five years in primary carrying heavy books on your back, then probably, it could be a long term effect of scoliosis. It' just so confusing why some kids have to bring a bunch of heavy, too thick, heavy books with them. With the tuition fees so high that almost reached the stratosphere (lol), can't the school even manage to build bookshelves???

when i was a kid there is really not that much photocopying and we need to bring our books to school. This is one of the reason why i hate going to school because of the heavy books. The good thing though that the school replaced the seats with the ones having a "mini locker" below for books.

I think it should depend on what type of classes you are taking. I've been to where we have lockers and the teachers should look at how many other classes they are taking in order to stagger there teachings. This would make it easier. They now have back packs that you can role and or small carry on bags with wheels. this would make it easier. it gerneally doesn't get harder for them until they are in highschool when they start getting different teachers and have four classes with different teachers.

That is typical sight of the primary school students over here. Everyday I watched the students passed by my house carrying heavy bags behind them until their bodies curved down to C. I can imagine the distance they have to walk with that loads behind them is torturing the growing bodies. I hope soon it will be a thing of the past when teaching through multimedia is fully implemented in schools. I have no idea whether scolisis is the cause of heavy bags but I believe it stunt the growth of kids. Nowonder people from this part of the world are short and tough...after all the years of carrying heavy books!

Scoliosis is caused when the muscles of one side of the lower back are not as strong as the muscles on the other side. This became apparent after the polio epidemic of the fifties since this virus invariably attacked one side at a different level than the other. So even when patients recovered from the polio they were prone to other muscular skeletal defects. That being said, I'm sure that carrying all those heavy books have aggravated the condition especially if they are carried on only one side.

I don't know but there is a great chance of it I think. There are a lot of books for little growing backs to have to carry to and from school. Very heavy ones too. I think that the roller back packs were a very good idea for the younger children especially. I know it would be more expensive to do so but it would be a good idea to issue students two books of each that they would learn from. One for home and one for school.

I swear that I think having to carry so many books has contributed to me having a bad back. Its not terrible but sometimes I can just go reach for something and BAM! there goes my back! I stretch regularly. I'm absolutely not the healthiest person in the world but since I was in choir from 4th grade through senior year in high school I have good posture so I am pretty much always sitting upright. Anyway, I remember having to lug books around. And I couldn't afford to buy a locker (which was really small and didn't even hold all of my books) in high school. sometimes I would have to chance leaving my english book in the classroom because it was so heavy and sometimes someone else from another class would take it. Anyway, there are so many advancement in technology and there is never a class that uses every single story or page in the book, nor every work assignment in the book so why are there so many pages?! Keeping one set of books in the classroom would be best and then the kids can leave their copy of the book at home to use with homework, that would be the best way to do it. Some days I would have to bring 3-4 books to school with me. I'd have two in my book bag (along with all of my notebooks for classes) then have to carry the others. Plus we had a mandatory reading period for like 20 minutes everyday so we had to always have a book with us. I think the amount of books kids have to carry is excessive and not good for their health.

I think this is mainly because the books are really heavy. I think what the school should do is to rotate classes so that they don't get the same classes everyday. That way the students don't need to bring all their books everyday. Also, stroller bags are better than backpacks. I remember, I've been using stroller bags until 3rd grade.

That illness is usually take from staying in a wrong position in front of your PC or at school on the seat not from the books ..

The schools should make a system to keep the book in the school. Its really unfair on children carrying so many books to school. I remember my school days we used to carry a heavy bag, it used to be more difficult in the rains.

I had a classmate back in high school that have scoliosis. And because of the pain, she sometimes need to wear back braces. But on days she's not wearing it, you'd notice that the loop-sided part of her back is where she usually hang her backpack. I think its best for kids to use strollers. Even if heavy backpack doesn't cause Scoliosis, its just not right to let kids carry heavy books like that.

Hi Sumi I dont really know the answer to this, so I made a little reading about this matter. http://www.ehow.com/about_5044276_back-caused-heavy-book-bags.html It was said there that heavy bags can "potentially cause scoliosis". I think the article mentioned that they have no concrete evidence about this, however it can potentially cause it.

No most cases you are born with scoliosis and no matter how much weight you carry on your back it will not give you scoliosis but stronger back muscles. The parents are just trying to find ways to get some moola.