Pros & Cons of Backpacks in School

Backpacks are often necessary school items. Backpacks come in all sizes, configurations and colors. In every school, students from kindergarten on up carry backpacks. While backpacks are a normal part of school life and have much to offer school students, there are also reasons to be cautious about the widespread use of backpacks in a school setting.

Need a Bag

• Gone are the days when a student carried one notebook, a pen and maybe a book or two to and from school. Today's students have a book, often a heavy book, for almost every class. Some classes might even require two books. Each class also requires a notebook. Students need pens and calculators. In some schools, students carry laptops to classes. Add in a few personal items and you have a situation where some sort of bag is necessary just to carry everything a student needs to get through the day.

Saves Time and Stress

• Backpacks are created with the student in mind. Younger students buy smaller backpacks. Older students buy larger ones. Backpacks are sturdy and have several pockets for all of the different items carried by students. Especially in middle school and high school, many students do not have time to stop by their lockers between classes. Carrying a backpack means students don't battle the clock trying to get to their lockers and then to class before the bell rings. With a backpack filled with their books, students can go from one class to another without the stress of stopping at their lockers first.

Back Problems

• As beneficial as backpacks are to today's student, carrying a backpack does pose problems. When you add up the weight from all the books, notebooks, laptops and other items students carry in backpacks on a regular basis, you have a very heavy backpack. This weight on still-growing backs and shoulders can cause shoulder, neck and back pain. If carried for long periods without relief, such weight can actually damage or strain muscles, backs and shoulders.

  Choosing the right backpack and carrying it correctly can go a long way to avoid these types of problems. The straps should be wide and fit without pinching. Students need to wear backpacks appropriately and not just sling them over a shoulder. The weight of a backpack shouldn't be more than 10 to 20 percent of the student's body weight. An appropriate backpack worn in the right way will better distribute weight and somewhat mitigate damage that can lead to medical care.

Danger

• Backpacks are large, heavy and everyone has them. Few consider that one of their fellow students may have something more in mind at school than academics, hanging out with friends and sports. Some students have much more on their minds, to which school shootings testify. A backpack is a perfect receptacle not only for books, but also for weapons. Any number of weapons can fit into a backpack. At any time, a student bent on destruction can draw a weapon rather than a book out of a backpack.