Posted on Monday, 9/07/2009 - 4:12 p.m. PDT — by abit5150
School is back for most of the county now; however, in Brentwood, my son has been back in school at Heritage High since July.
When looking for a home this summer, we went to great pains to insure that the home was close enough to the school that our son could ride his bike to and from. For his birthday, he got a new bike so he could do just that. After week two, it was clear that I would be driving him to and from school. Why? Have any of you parents actually tried to carry the backpacks of your children? I could barely lift my son's backpack when he handed it to me. On week two, the strap on his backpack was already torn from the sheer weight.
Now, granted, my son is a small sixteen year old at only 95lbs, but for these children to have to carry a 36lb backpack to and from school every day (YES! I DID put it on a scale) and from class to class is ridiculous!! It's no wonder these children suffer from back problems at such a young age.
Is there not something that can be done? How difficult, in this day and age of technology, would it be for the book publishers to put all the material from the textbooks onto a CD so the children with computers at home could simply print out the pages they need and do the work they need to turn in the following day?
I can't be the only one who feels this way. Have any other schools in the bay area made any concessions for such an issue?? If so, I'd love to hear it. Heritage High is a brand new school and so much money has been spent on the brick and mortar, the top notch theatre and the beautiful swimming pool, the magnificent gymnasium. I'd love to think that the buck isn't stopping at the feet of our children.
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 1926
I agree the kids are harming their health by having to carry these heavy backpacks. Many secondary kids bodies are not even fully grown yet. This is hurting their posture and stunting the bones that are still forming.
Joined: Jun 2006
Current Posts: 252
I saw the title of this thread and just knew my wife started it. She just found a backpack today big enough to carry my youngest son's books to middle school. Kinda crazy. I didn't think much about it until I had to hold it up while she adjusted the straps for him and he struggled getting it off and on. Fully packed with books that thing is a load to deal with. I agree, in this day and age it's pretty silly to have to lug around that kind of weight everyday. Time to put those books on CD's and give every kid a laptop.
Joined: Aug 2009
Current Posts: 24
A Kindle could hold all their books electronically. No wasted trees, long battery life, cheaper than a laptop, easy downloads of new editions, and lightweight!
Joined: Dec 2008
Current Posts: 4
With all of the extra money in the school budgets, I'm sure they will be getting those very soon.
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 4928
No offense, but there's a "Snowball's" chance of that happening soon Snowman. I'm sure you were being sarcastic, and rightfully so.
The weight of the backpacks is ridiculous. I can't move them when my kids leave them in the middle of the floor. If I yell at them, they lean them up against the wall covering the outlet where I plug in my laptop! I wanted to buy my kids one of those rolling backpacks, but they said the schools wouldn't allow them because they would cause "traffic accidents" and one flat tire could cause a pile-up making everybody late for class. There's no money to increase the corridors to 4 lanes.
It's not obesity that is making American kids larger today. It's an evolutionary response in adapting to the weight of the backpacks. How else can you explain how my 15 year old son is 6'2", 240 lbs, and has a size 15 shoe? My wife is 5'3, normal size and I was a scrawny 6 foot 150 pounder in high school? It doesn't take Darwin to figure it out!
Joined: Feb 2004
Current Posts: 2436
The few quaitiy Sunday Comics (the times Censors the best out today - "Mallard Fillmore") printed in the paper contain some humorous takes on such issues as backpacks.
I believe it was the comic Baby Blues' that showed the familiy (Mom And Dad and Kids) out shopping for backpacks - and the Son (inherited his Fathers Y DNA) is shown exiting from inside a backpack taller than he is that could serve as an expidition tent, saying this meets his needs.
Watching some of these poor kids bent like camels under an excess load is bad enough, but when you think of the often overt misandrist hate propaganda pushed by the pathetic farce of political thought policing known as 'academentia' that fills these books - the concept of 'Insult added to Injury' is applicable.
As for kindle - a lot of money for a questionable outcome.
Kind of like the whold 'educational' system under a Child Pimp like Democrap Icon Jack O'COnnell
Ohso
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell (and also 'anti-educational' - in Newspeak)
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 4928
Wow, Ohso's weighing in on the backpack controversy? What does backpacking have to do with the Misandry of Mankind and Turkey Baster Creationists?
I'm probably going to regret asking that.
Joined: Dec 2008
Current Posts: 225
Smooth, BJ, Smooth,
Awaken the beast. God help us all, lol
Joined: Jul 2006
Current Posts: 3155
Well, he did manage to bring up DNA, which is a component of sperm, the thought of which apparently gets Ohso's juices flowing and excites him to no end.
Joined: Jan 2008
Current Posts: 1304
You two know that you are just chumming the waters.
Joined: Oct 2007
Current Posts: 687
What happened to lockers at school? Is this a thing of the past, or just a way for the school to save a little money, at the expense of the kids? I mean all we hear is that it is all about the kids, why are the schools making it tougher on them? Way back when we only took the books home that we needed to take home, not every one. Sadly I guess lockers like shop classes, on the road drivers ed that didn't cost an arm and a leg are things of the past.
Joined: Jul 2006
Current Posts: 3155
There are lockers, but whether or not the lock works is iffy. That still doesn't help with the load the kids have to lug home each day. Maybe you don't have kids in school right now, but the homework load is way more than when we were in school. There have been cover stories in Time and Newsweek about how so much of a kid's free time at home to just be a kid is taken up by all the homework. But that's another issue.
Joined: Dec 2008
Current Posts: 225
What do mean the homework load is more, I had to carry my hornbook and chalk home every night and my dad would really make that hornbook heavy if I didn't do well in school. LOL
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 4928
All I remember from my Parochial School days was a PeeChee folder and a giant green pencil. They taught us at school so we didn't have to do homework. Catholic school didn't start off well for me. The first day, the nun asked everybody to raise their hands if they were a good Christian. I raised my hand because I wanted to ask, "What's a Christian?," but I noticed most of the other kids had their hands raised too, so she didn't call on me. The ones that didn't raise their hands got a tongue lashing and a note sent home to their parents that probably made them feel stupid. I really dodged a bullet there. Only lasted 2 years though, and then I got put in public school and had to go to catechism.
Joined: Mar 2008
Current Posts: 438
Are there lockers at Deer Valley? I've been there many times and don't remember them.
My son never had a locker at Antioch on 18th that I can remember.
Joined: Jul 2006
Current Posts: 3155
Deer Valley has lockers.
Joined: Dec 2005
Current Posts: 1247
they need to put the books on cd/ dvd's
I will keep my GUNS, my FREEDOM, my MONEY, you can keep the CHANGE
Joined: May 2009
Current Posts: 18
Lockers in the schools in Brentwood are non-existent. My daughter has to carry her extra books in her other hand because of the weight of her book bag. With Heritage High School being new, you would think lockers would have been installed. They used to have two sets of books for the kids; one set kept at school in the classes, and one set at home. With the new schedule, there are not enough books.
News flash, all the money for the lockers is used for free lunches for the people that need it. The same people that drive 30-40k cars with the head bumping stereos and the kids in the designer clothes.
Hey Mr. President, can you fix that since your doing such a great job running our nation into the gutter. No we can't.
Joined: Nov 2008
Current Posts: 37
the reason my kids didn't have lockers was because the school admin. was concerned with what kids could hide in them ie:drugs,weapons. There are lockers at the school but they are not used. My kids had one set of books at home and one set of books left at school. This was in middle school. At their highschool they have lockers, and my kids use them. They have a PE locker that is theirs as well. they don't have to share it with anyone else.
Joined: Sep 2006
Current Posts: 4928
Stoney's kid had a locker and he kept having his P.E. clothes stolen out of it, huh Stoney? That's probably another reason lockers aren't that popular.