Ban Backpacks in School?

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	Education Issues Topic Index A-Z Index	Ban backpacks?

This letter to the editor was prompted by our local school district’s efforts to ban backpacks in school hallways, and the Pantagraph’s editorial approval of the effort:

Dear Editor,

The paper is quick to praise efforts to ban backpacks in schools: "Students survived for years without book bags, and we doubt it will affect their education to do it now."

I have a 1946 algebra textbook that displaces 45 cubic inches and weighs one pound (about the size of a paperback.) Its 1995 counterpart displaces 98.55 cubic inches and weighs 3 lb, 4 oz. That's over twice the volume and three times the weight.

My youngest son had a "Life Sciences" (biology) book last year that was too big to fit properly in his locker! He had to put the book in diagonally.

Some teachers at NCHS require kids to carry individual 3-ring binders, and dock their grades if the semester's papers aren't all present at inspection.

Kids carry all their books because there isn't time between classes to get to their lockers. They are penalized for being even one minute late to class, though breaks are short and hallways crowded. The authorities' solution is to say the kids shouldn't socialize between classes.

I'm sure there are "good reasons" for all this, but the fact is: kids shoulder a huge burden, and the schools put it there.

Remember that school shootings, though sensationalized by the media, are rare. Making backpacks necessary and then banning them is comically clueless - especially if the school still allows gym bags (carried to the locker room) and purses.

School districts should demand smaller, lighter textbooks from publishers anyway. Those heavy books are actually hurting our kids' backs.

Between - class time is valuable, too, for lots of reasons. Kids need that time. Not every class is essential, but a moment's respite may be invaluable.

"Fortress" schools are a terrible civics lesson, pose only a minor obstacle to violence, and certainly alienate disaffected kids. The "answer" may be a more difficult equation: "Rules times relationship equals a constant."