"i used a jansport backpack its the best"

"When I was in college, I bought my text books. Then I cut the large books into sections so that I only had to carry a few chapters at a time. I used heavy paper to make covers for each section, and kept them in great condition. I road my bicycle about 10 miles to school and did not want the extra weight. We didn't have lockers on campus either, so storing th books wasn't an option. This only worked in classes where we worked through the book in order. If you can buy the text book or just copy the chapters that you need, then you could do this too. It might be pricey and untraditional, but it worked out very well for me. I kept the books for years and continued to use them, so it wasn't as wasteful as it seems. I'm sure that another student would be interested in using a book in sections as well, so maybe it could be passed on."

"i agree with all of this information! i'm 15 and going into 10th grade. i already have pretty severe back and neck pain from my completely overloaded backpack. i'm carrying much more then 15% of my body weight(and i'm definitely not considered in the 'thin' category)! I went to both a physical therapist and my pediatrician to discuss my back pains and they both gave me the same advice: use a two strapped backpack and leave as much in your locker as possible. I have always used a two strapped backpack so that wasn't a problem at all, but when it came to the second piece of advice i was stuck. I was assigned a locker that was NOWHERE near any of my classes. even if i tried to take a roundabout route to my classes so i could pass my locker i wouldnt have enough time to stop and load/unload my books. as if this wasnt enough my teachers just kept loading on the books. i had one for spanish, one for gym(although i have no clue why...) one for english, one for algebra II, one for h! istory, and TWO enormous textbooks for biology. yes, i did say not one but TWO for biology. This brought me to a grand total of SEVEN textbooks. i would usaully need to bring around 2-3 to and from school everday. and lets not forget a binder for 5 out of the 6 classes a day. and paper. and my pencil case. and folders and notebooks. and in the winter a heavy coat.. and on occasion large projects..needless to say my school took VERY LITTLE consideration for the health of the students. Sorry for the long message, but i feel pretty strongly about this topic and would like to share my story to let parents know of this issue. If something like this is happening to your child i would recommend calling the school and getting written note from your childs doctor stating a change necessary too protect the health of the students!..i wish it worked at my school..."

"I have a daughter entering kindergarten and a son entering second grade. They are both small for their ages, and they don't weigh much, either. I am worried about heavy backpacks, as I have severe scoliosis myself and know what severe back pain is like. My daughter herself only weighs 34 pounds, and I know that my son's backpack, even in kindergarten, weighed easily half that much at times. I don't think she could handle a rolling backpack, since it's bigger than she is, so I really don't know what to do!"

"Thank you for this information because the dammage has been done alrealdy to my eleven year old daughter one of her shoulders are damage and her neck is sitting on her shoulder her posture is shot she is mess up for life also school need to do studys befor making stupid rulls about book bag with wheels . I will be able to protect my son who is six years old."

"Children suffering from backpacks that are overloaded could also look into purchasing the books they use at school on the internet if the school isn't willing to change their policies. I was able to find the exact books my daughter used in school on eBay for a low cost and then I sold them when school let out. Of course this only works if the students have a locker or if the teacher is willing to hold the books for the child while class is dismissed. "

"great tips."

"thx alot..ill remember ths one..."

"The advice suggesting strength training exercises for your child so s/he can carry a backpack is absurd. If a backpack is so heavy that the child can't carry it without doing strength training, there is too much material in the backpack, meaning the child has loaded in more than necessary or that the school is giving too much homework. I don't ever remember having so much homework that I couldn't carry it all, even when I was in high school in a demanding school. Something is wrong with schools today if they are requiring childlren to do this much homework."

"You know....all this about the AAP saying the weight should only be 15% of the childs weight and then you have a child bringing 25 & 30 lbs of books home a day, and teachers are complaining about the roller packs. Where is the happy medium? If your going to send a child home with 60% of their body weight on their backs then don't say a word when they show up with roller packs."

"To help lighten your childs backpack see if their teacher can E-mail their weekly assignments if you have a computer and a E-mail address. This can help lessen the stress on your childs back and save on the doctors bill. P.S. Maybe the school distric will start downloding the books our children use in class so that the problem of our children saying I forgot my book will be stopped and lighen their back packs. San "

"The cd idea is good but what if someone doesn't have a computer? Some say go to a library, others say go to a friend's house.but what if your like me you live in a tiny town wherethe library is like antique. The city (with a library) that is close to my tiny town is 15 mins away. and i don't think parents would like to drive 15 mins all the days of a school year. and my friends are 15,5, and 20 mins away from my house. so it's abad and good idea "

"i think that the school should allow more passing time in the halls for the kids to put some items away that wont be needed instead of some kids jamming everything in there backpack which adds the weight which would create problems. i have a 'hunch' in my back a slight one and i am only a freshman! it is nuts on how teachers expect you to have all the necessary items in such little time. "

"I'm a student at a middle school situated on a campus. Here, lockers have been completely eliminated except for the gym lockers, which are more cubbies with doors than they are lockers. This means I need to be constantly lugging around five or six oversized textbooks all over campus because I don't have anywhere to put them, and the school has blatantly refused to give us an extra set of books. I've tried all kinds of bags and none of them worked. Backpacks cause back pain. Messenger bags are the same as wearing your backpack with only one shoulder strap-- the imbalanced weight requires constant shifting from shoulder to shoulder and made my own shoulder swell up and bruise. Rolling backpacks are really the only option to avoid personal pain, but they're a huge nuisance when it comes to traveling; they're noisy, difficult to carry up and down stairs and its very easy to trip and hurt people with them. There really is no 'best' option, just go with whatever suits you best. "

"After reading the articles, it is nice to hear that some schools are emilinating backpacks! For those that live in California: Assembly Bill 2532 Chapter 1096 Education Code 49415"

"What is with the backpacks? Why does every parent think that's the only option? My daughter started kindergarten with a packpack and was complaining of her back hurting all the time. We found and tried a messenger bag, now 5 years later, she still uses a messenger bag and has not complained of back pain since. She was the first in her school to use a messenger bag, now many others have also found they work much better than a backpack. Take some advice and ditch the backpacks, there are other alternatives much healthier for your kids."

"You have to understand that not all people have money for light weight back packs!My parents had to make their own back packs out of jeans or leather and they where really heavy.Not all people have so much money.Some people have barely 30.00 for school supplies and clothes.Not me but when I lived in Arizona it was like that."

"It's ridiculous to even suggest block scheduling in order for kids to take home less books. As a student once in a block schedule school, I find it more important to have an overloaded mind than an overloaded backpack."

"Two of my four children attend David Hinson Middle school in Daytona Beach and the Principal banned all back-packs as soon as the school opened 2 years ago. He has been following the health issues for 10 years and is the only principal in Volusia County to take this step. I would like to see them banned country wide."

"I remember when I was in Jr. and High School. I had alot of books to carry. Because of that I now have a bad back that gives out at times. I believe that giving the option to have the materials on cd or internet is a great idea. And like someone else wrote if a student doesn't have a computer they can have the extra book because it will be available. The schools won't have to buy extra books so that is always a plus for the school system. Very few people these days do not have a computer, and there is always the library where they can use there computer for free. Kids these days have to go through so much to get an education I think that if we help them in what we can they would be more willing to go to school to learn. If we don't help our children now our future doesn't look to good with so many kids dropping out of school."

"a tip for carrying less weight: instead of carrying a binder for every subject you have for homework, take out just the notes you need for that class and put them in a separate binder. that way, if you have homework for all your classes, you don't have to carry around 4 or more binders with additional notes that you aren't even using, you just have one binder (or folder or duotang)with just a few pieces of paper. another tip: don't carry a pencil case back and forth, leave it in your locker, and have another one at home. one last tip, if you have nothing to do at lunch, try to work on homework at lunch and get it done, especially for subjects with textbooks because that's one less thing to carry home"

"i agree with that that student form pennsylvania. We are not on block schedule and we are not going back to it. The school doesnt really like it cause of the long periods. But we do have a lot of people with back problems. I can also use it as advice for mii self and others I like this cuz i can use some of the info for mii newspaper for mii school. "

"Here in my childrens school district mesh backpacks are needed to protect the students and teachers from violent acts. I did not know this nor was informed by the school. There is not a violence problem in my area but other areas are and this prompted our district to inforce this. Parents did not get a chance to vote on the nor have they been warned. My family is on a fixed income and buying two sets of bookbags is a hard thing to do.Are school required to inform of such changes? "

"I am a high school student and all of the suggestions make sence, but they don't work in our school district. We no longer have block schedualing, and its looking as if it will not be coming back, the school district has already turned down the idea of the second set of books, and when we did have the internet-based curriculum, the company hosting it messed everything up. It is inevitable to have to carry home huge books. In some classes we even have 2 or 3 books. None of them are small. Teachers don't care about any other class but their's and if thet means they give you one hour of homework, using 2 different books, oh well. I have a pretty large bookbag and I usually can't fit all of my books and binders in it. I sometimes have to take 6-7 books home along with the required binders for those subjects. I get on the bus piled up with books and binders. I have a horrible back and I can't stand having to hurt myself over homeowrk, its painful enough just doing it."

"I think the idea to have curriculm on cd's for the students to take home makes more sense than buying duplicate books. It would be more cost effective and the kids who don't have a computer could go to the library or study with a friend. I am all for saving my kids backs as I know first hand the consequences of carrying too many books."

"I understand the dress codes,but we should have a choice what to wear as long as it is not short shorts or skirts.Think about it you are a student your mother or someone got you a new outfit you are so proud of it ,and you want everone at school to see it,but you couldn't because it didn't met school dress code.I thinck there are bullys telling people that they areugly or their voice is differnt or they're fat it continues,the kids or teens can feel good of what the are whearing and free that they can choice what to wear."

"I used to teach at a high school with block scheduling. It was a horrible idea! The teachers and students all hated it; the only people that liked it were the administrators, because they thought it saved money. However, with block scheduling, you cover LESS material during the year, because you assign less homework, and the students have less time to assimilate the lessons into their long-term memory, due to there being less repetition of the material. Here in MA, the trend is also to cut down on lunch periods...some schools give students as few as 22 minutes!! There isn't time for the kids to go to there lockers to switch books. There's also no break for them. No wonder the kids are acting up more. "

"If extra copies of textbooks are available at school, ask the teacher for a copy of the text to use at home. The other text can be used in class, reducing the number of books carried to and fro."

"My school has illaminted lockers and i hate it! My back aches everytime that i come home from school! They staff seems to think that double sets of books will help but not every teacher has double sets. So we end up having to carry those books around with us all day, every day! Plus we have to carry our bags at lunch cause their arent even enough places to sit! I think my back is going to split in two cause it sure feels like it! "

"I think part of the reason that lockers are becoming obsolete is that teachers find the banging of locker doors noisy and irritating. My daughter's backback weighs about 40 pounds and she is constantly complaining of her back hurting because of the wight and number of books she has to tote around all day due to lack of time to use her locker. Classes are spread out all over the campus and children have no time to do anything except change classrooms. "