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Not long ago, school board officials in Florida’s Palm Beach County decided to give middle school students a break from carrying around heavy textbooks by supplying an extra set of books – one for home, one for class. Their motivation? All that weight on a child’s back can’t be healthy. Similarly-motivated legislation and regulations are popping up all over the country. Limits on textbook weights are in the works in California; full-scale ergonomics education could become part of the curriculum for students in New Jersey. Except for a scarce few, most experts agree that backpacks can be a painful proposition for children.
But backpacks aren’t just for kids. Hikers and campers haul their kitchens and sleeping quarters in them for a weekend trip. Photojournalists carry pounds of heavy equipment in their packs. Estimates show that anywhere from 60 to 120 pounds is the normal backpack, or rucksack, load for military personnel. So why can’t an 11-year old carry a mere 15 pounds?
According to some experts, including Karen Jacobs, Ed.D., CPE, Clinical Professor of Occupational Therapy at Boston University, it’s not just what’s being carried, but how the backpack is being carried. In an interview with The Ergonomics Report (“Kids and the Weight of Their Worlds”, April 2003), Jacobs indicated that students might not be carrying properly fitted backpacks or holding them the right way. It’s about style and fitting in, Jacobs said. “Children use [backpacks] as a life support system,” she said. “They’re almost part of a uniform that kids wear. Backpacks are very cool.”
According to Jacobs, it’s in that quest for coolness that children forget to worry about how to wear or pack a backpack properly. Packs are slung loosely over a single shoulder; items are crammed into the pack. Proper fit loses out to pop culture. For Jacobs, it’s a combination of all of these factors that can turn a simple backpack into a weighty pain.
In 2002, the Department of Defense Ergonomics Working Group published a poster instructing military personnel on how to pack and carry their backpacks or rucksacks. Weight and contents aside, the recommendations nearly mimic Jacob’s own suggestions for children carrying packs. But one of the key differences is that, in the military, backpack carriers are trained in how to pack their belongings and how to wear their packs; in schools, children aren’t.
“There needs to be a partnership with parents,” said Jacobs. “The whole discussion of backpacks needs to be a broader issue of child ergonomics in general. Loading [a backpack] correctly and wearing it correctly should be done in concert with parents.”
For an in-depth look at children and backpacks, as well as tips and commentary on the subject, see The Ergonomics Report, April 2003.
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