Have you seen any school-going students struggling with their bags? Have you tried helping them carry their bags and noticed how heavy they are?
If yes, were you concerned?
If yes, did you dismiss any further contemplation about why the bags are so heavy? Because you thought, well, it’s education after all. Because books are happy and nothing can be done about it?
If yes, then this will come as news to you. School bags are made heavy because of the weight of the books. And, ironically, it is the same books that can be made to vanish to make the bags much lighter.
Here are 4 reasons why you should rethink the role school bags play in your children’s education.
1. Effect on Physical Well-being
Carrying heavy school bags:
- Harms the spine
- Affects the posture even when not carrying the bag
- Leads to orthopaedic issues like sclerosis
Several studies have proved time and again that school bags cause long-term health problems. Unlike viral infection, these issues aren’t visible to the parents. So, most parents tend to ignore them.
2. Love for Education
School bags do not add anything to education. How will students focus on learning if they’re only preoccupied by the discomfort caused to them by all the weight?
Schools should take all the stress away from the shoulders of the students and focus on nurturing their brains.
3. Family Time
Coming up with unique ideas like having a locker or books storage facility at home increases the chances that students enjoy better family time at home.
If the students are not made to carry their studies home, their parents would be forced to keep their work aside too. Or leave it at their workplace instead.
Heavy school bags are a way to dump a lot of homework on the students. Because there’s no school bag, there’s no homework or revision to take care of.
4. Going Paperless
When the schools turn to teaching with the help of digital resources, they help in making everything paperless.
The added advantage is that digital resources or e-textbooks are forever. They don’t get lost or misplaced.
No more, “the dog ate my homework” situation either.
It is the duty of schools to go beyond the academics. They can no longer continue to burden the students with more and more books and paper materials in the name of imparting better education.
Most parents think about their children’s education. But they don’t think about the context in which this education happens.
Do heavy school bags have to be there for any kind of learning to take place?