Attack of the 15-Pound Backpack

Chris’s mom looked worried. Her son was small for his age – a 7th grader, he weighed less than 80 pounds. He had no problem keeping up with the big kids, but he did have a problem with his 15-pound backpack. “What can I do?” she asked. “His back hurts every day.”

Backpack Attack!
How to lighten kids' loads

By Ellen Cochrane

Doctors warn of the potentially harmful effects of heavy backpacks on young, growing backs, and both parents and teachers are frustrated with the situation.
Most districts do allow students to check out two textbooks – one for home and one to store at school. This can lighten the backpack significantly, but parents often need to make a special request for this accommodation. 

Estimate the weight of the backpack when it’s filled with books. E-mail your doctor with your concerns, and ask for a signed note excusing your child from lugging the books. You don’t need to have an actual, costly visit. (Check with your school to see what it specifically requires in the doctor's note.)
 

The long haul
So, how exactly did we get to this point of 15-pound backpacks, and what can we do?

Publishers should expect a profit. They spend a lot of money hiring experts to write, design and market textbooks. But textbooks morphed from smaller books containing mostly writing into behemoths with full-color pictures, photos, and graphs, in part as a response to the notion that kids were becoming more visual and reading less. Thus, the 1000-page, $100 tomes to teach 7th grade science.

The more parents request protection for kids’ backs, the faster schools and publishers will switch to technology to solve the issue. Textbook companies will develop online content, and we may get closer to the day when notebook computers, like the iPad, become standard issue for accessing textbooks digitally.

Change is always hard, but school administrations need to prick up their ears and purchase technology, not giant textbooks. Sore backs might just be the agent for that change.

Ellen Cochrane is a veteran teacher in the Elk Grove School District.