you still havent provided any evidence on how carrying books interferes with study

 

I don't think they are that heavy. Maybe 30lbs. But yes, I sometimes do not carry them too. Sometimes I just don't care about the "less important" classes. And it affected my grades when I was in high school. If I am one and you are one, that means there are millions of other students who feel the same way.

BTW, Jake, when you have homework due the next day or a quiz, it's nice to have a textbook to study the night before. But when you don't carry it, it doesn't help much. Or...you are too lazy to EVER carry a heavy book until it's too late and you to cram, it doesn't help either. Anyway, whenever you don't carry the books when you should, it doesn't help the educational system. A "perfect education" system would be one in which a student does NOT have to think "gee, which assignments/quiz/test/classes are the least important so it wouldn't hurt me as much if I forgo carrying to book home tonight." every day.

And when you consider a typical school spends $ 8 million PER YEAR for the sake of putting stuff in students' head, trying to save $2000 every year isn't really worth it if it's gonna cause any decrease in the quality of the education system.

Sorry, can't prove it but that's my guess.

 

True,

But I think its just a part of life, just like doing "farm chores " befgore school if you live on a farm or walking miles to school

 

Another part of life is change. When the light bulb was invented, no one said "well, we've been using candles for ages, we might as well keep using them". Part of the reason we're such a great nation is we've adapted to time. We have the technology to produce lighter more organized textbooks, and we have the technology to have them on the internet or CD's. We might as well use it.

But on the other hand, I completly agree with what 924x2150 is saying. So what if we make textbooks ligher for kids? Then some other things get lighter, and pretty soon a human being doesnt have to do anything labor related. Do we want our society to become that fragile? I'm not saying that lighter textbooks will ruin our society, but in the long long run, will it contribute?

All I know is this, my AP lit book is big, and my Adventures in reading book is just as large. My Econ book was the same size as both of them, but my Physics book was the biggest of them all. I can just say i am thankful that i didnt have all those classes at once. Last year however, i had my backpack stuffed full, and probably would have paid 50$ to have some lighter books. I can remember after hauling that thing around all week, around friday evening, i could really feel it.

Around here the textbooks get thrown every 10 years. I have no idea how that site got 50$ the average cost of a textbook. I know that there are alot of small books that cost $9 that probably act as outliers when they calculate the average. But it would be nice if the college books only were 40$ for a used one.

I kind of have mixed feelings on the situation. I guess I have more questions than i do answers right now.

 

Thank you peter94, the term "fragile" best describes what we are all becoming. Other posters mentioned we should adapt and overcome, we have the technology to make lighter, longer lasting, and more economical learning guides. We can all strive to do things easier, find the quickest , best way to do things. But, I bet an Iraqi 10 year old could kick the crap out of an American 10 year old in a street fight. A nigerian would gladly walk to school barefoot every day, and would be thrilled to have his/her own 60 pound stack of books to carry. I would bet an old 75 year old Guatemalen brick mason could probably outwork most 25 year old american masons also. Lets not forget we may need to be tough someday, tough enough to live day by day. Don't go the soft route.

 

I think kids need a little hard work to do occasionally. Sure when I was in school I had around 50-60 pounds of books to carry. It did not bother me a bit. I was conditioned to work. My grandad used to park his truck in front of his house when he got back from the feed store. I had to tote the feedsacks which were one hundred pounds apiece at the time to the barn at the back of the property. He would have me tote one on each shoulder. He could have easily drove back to the barn and let me throw them off. I didnt ask why he did that when I was younger he was an honery old son of a gun and I probably woulda got backhanded. I finally asked him about it after I was grown. He told me I was making a man out of you. It was all clear at that point and I am grateful for it.

To make a long story short kids need that little bit of work to do in the middle of playing X-box to get them used to the real world. Think about it. It is hard to get them to pause the game long enough to get them to do something as simple as taking out the garbage nowadays. I agree with 924X2150 we need to quit wimping down our society. I did not vote on either of the options because neither fit my views.

 

Yeah, its basically a question of where's that line between creating back problems in young kids and having the extra bit of weight actually helping them to build muscle. I think that line is different for every person and thats why this is a subject that cant be answered with one solve-all solution. Because on one hand carrying all those books may build alot of muscle in the back and make me strong, while on the other hand carrying all those books may be fine now, but when i'm 40 maybe i'll have some back problems and might be wishing that i had lighter ones. Who knows, its different for every person. I should just make sure my GF doesnt have to carry any heavy books, otherwise in 1 year she might be able to kick my butt (not to say she allready couldnt). Her backpack for college weighs a good 40lbs.

 

I know with my kids that carrying a pack full of books was harmfull. The way the classes were and the time between classes didn't allow for going back and getting them changed out. Back problems have been growing. Some of it is because kids don't get out and do any physical exercise, but also it is just a issue of plaine weight. Jr high and high school are times when your bone structure is going through a lot of changes and adding carrying a lot of weight around only hurts it. I believe that the schools should start a transition to some basic laptops and CD's. Buying in quantity would reduce the cost of them and from what I understand they can update a lot more often with this system. Kids are a lot more into doing things on computers than with books now so it might even help them actually do their homework.

 

Giving kids laptops is a bad idea. Have you seen how textbooks look after a year in a kids backpack of locker? Not to mention the fact that a laptop can get spyware and viruses.

 

Yeah, there are alot of pro's and con's to a school issuing laptop. They would be able to download books and stuff and keep really up to date. But I've seen the way kids treat stuff in school, and i dont think it would even make it 1 full year. If people were more respectful of the schools property i think it would be a great solution. I guess an idea would be to make one with a bulletproof case, no keyboard, just a pad you could scroll on with a cursor and have a special operating system that only lets you look up books. Then the selling point to the school would be that you can download and get updates whenever you want and never have to buy new books every year. Make them extreemly durable, sign them out, and keep track. That might be a start, but it would be a battle to get something like that in schools. It sure would be nice though.

 

The laptop idea may become very feasible for schools soon. They are working on a laptop that can be sold to schools for 100 dollars. They will not be power houses by any means but they should be great for ebooks. http://laptop.org/

 

Why is it such a big deal in the first place? Your kids may gripe about it, but it is part of growing up. You can be sympathetic without trying to hold their hand or absolve a new responsibility or task they have to confront on their own.

 

No kiddin! 4 out of the 5 books I have bought this year have been over 1300 pages

 

i don't see the big deal at all about it. its just more whining and excuses. last year it was how early they have to be at school, this year i guess its the books weight. buy a good backpack and no one should have any probs. or better yet, lay off the playstation and coke and actually get out and do some physical activity.

 

What fun would life be without complaining about something? It would be kinda interesting to see some numbers on what percent of kids have backproblems due to books, what the average weight of a 10th grader's backpack is, etc. Wonder if anyones done any studys?